Huckleberry
by Nachii Moonfilia
Summary: Lucy's life used to be quite perfect, she was a quite well-known singer with nice personality. Until one day, her reputation ruined by a pink haired onyx eyed thief who stole the infamous Huckleberry amulets, and now she was stuck with him until the army find them! But in the end, will this guy stole something Lucy never dared to give to anyone? Her heart?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, Nachii's here..**

**Man, it's been like what? Three? Four months since I last post something? Forgive me, I was so busy with school, and most of all have no idea what to write.. -_-**

**but few days ago, this idea was given by someone and then BOOM! This story happened :D **

**Well, it was unexpected since at first the idea was kinda hard to think, but then inspirations came and blablabla.. **

**So, this is an AU Fairy Tail fiction, coz I admit, I prefer an AU, but it's not like I hate real life FT, it's just..**

**Uh, cut it out. I'm not good at saying things, weird, huh? So, here you go, Huckleberry chapter 1. xD**

**Hope you like it~**

* * *

Gentle breeze flowed softly around the town. Hundreds of flags being held up on the pillars in every side of the street. Children, elderly, and teenagers chatted, making noises around the city. Flowers and trees bloomed and created magnificent scent everywhere.

Clover Town was really a peaceful city.

A young lady, in her age of 20, swept her silky blond hair to the side, uncovering her warm brown eyes from the disturbing locks. Her pink dress swayed side to side every time she walked, her heels clicked on the ground. People greeted her, smiling and waving, even some guys winked at her due to her beauty, the girl just smiled politely.

Lucy Heartfilia, that was her name. An ordinary girl with extraordinary beautiful voice. Curvy body, pretty face, charming smile, and not to mention a hearty calming voice that paralyzed the citizens gained her many offers to perform in some operas. Her performance displayed in many shows, via lacryma visions, or magazines.

She was quite well-known in Clover Town, but she never intended to gain bigger popularity in outer town, she was quite satisfied with what she got now. Her life was quite perfect, until that particular day with particular incident that led her into another particular adventure.

With a particular guy.

What day was that? Ah, that an ordinary Thursday morning. Lucy got the invitation to sing for the opening of today's exhibition. The infamous Oracion Seis Company would hold an exhibition that showed the rare dragon artifacts. Dragons were existed, or so Lucy heard. So when the news about the exhibitions spread through the city, she was excited to see it, so she accepted the invitations wholeheartedly.

Checking her watch, it was 8 in the morning, an early time to see the exhibition. Lucy's heels clicked on the tiled floor as she passed the guard and let them checked her belongings for safety.

"Coming for morning practice for today's performance, Miss Lucy?" the guard asked her, handing her bag her purse. She smiled at him, "Not really. The practice supposed to be at 9, I just want to see the exhibition people talked about these days earlier so I don't have to squeeze my way in between the crowd later." The man nodded and smiled at her.

"Well, hope you enjoy it. The Oracion Seis Company spent million jewels for this." The blonde singer laughed. "Yeah, I hope they won't disappoint me. Is there anyone yet inside there?" the guard shrugged.

"Few people. They have the same reason as you." She nodded and waltzed inside, bowing politely at the guards.

Lucy hummed few soft tones as she walked around. Each artifact was already placed on top of tables on their own spots. Clear glass boxes covered them with red secure line for the visitors border of view. Dim lamps hung under each table, illuminating each artifact with soft lights. She could see why it was called Dragon Artifacts Exhibitions, everything had dragon-like sculpture on them.

There was a very beautiful red dragon shaped ruby, a bright transparent egg shaped crystal that had a small dragon sculpture on it, big black altar that lit fire nonstop, and much else. Most of them were jewelries but some are bigger things like pots, jars, and so on. Everything looked so expensive.

"Wow, they must cost thousands jewels.." she muttered a bit loudly, looking around. Unfortunately some artifacts only had names on the show, but no descriptions.

Something caught the corner of her eye and she spun to see a particular box in the corner of the room. Stepping closer, she found herself speeding up with excitement. There, a pair of necklaces was hung from a rock. The glass box and the red line prevented Lucy from stepping closer.

It was a pair of light red—orange necklace with different sizes. The first one was bigger, with a shape of a dragon looked to the right, small white diamond on the head of the dragon. The other one had softer orange color, almost pink, the smaller dragon shape looked to the left, facing its pair with similar white diamonds on the head. The tails of the dragons curled around their each body.

Lucy gasped at the jewelries. "Oh my.. They are—"

"Beautiful, isn't it?" another small gasp escaped her throat, she spun on her heel to her side, seeing a young man stood beside her, leaning to the box also. She held her breath when he straightened himself and looked at her with a smile that got the butterflies in her stomach fluttered madly.

"A-Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there.. I was.. Uh, I mean.." she stuttered, made him chuckle. "It's okay, they're beautiful, aren't they?" she blushed a bit and nodded, managed a smile. "Yes, they are."

"Do you know what those are?" she shook her head in confusion. There was neither name nor description on the table. The man directed his black eyes to the box once more and Lucy saw faint of green in his eyes, like… onyx? What a weird eye color.

When the man went silent for a while, the singer couldn't help but looking at him from his head to his feet. He was tall, she predicted she only reached his shoulder—maybe chin, muscular arms could be seen from the white long sleeved shirt he wore with a black open vest on it, a pair of trousers, casual shoes, and a weird looking scarf around his neck.

She looked up to his head. His face sculpted perfectly, like a work of art, warm onyx eyes and defined jaw, but what caught her attention most was his pink hair. She shrugged it off, and went back staring at his face.

Gosh, he was handsome.

"Like what you see?" Lucy snapped out of her thought and blushed madly when he laughed, looking at her like she was an idiot. "I wasn't staring at anything!" she denied, looking away. "Anyway, I assumed that you know what are those necklaces." He stopped laughing and nodded.

"Those are called Huckleberry, a dragon amulet." She raised a brow. "You know, when a dragon found their mate, they couldn't stay far away from their mate, stay away from each other for a few miles, and the one who walked away will die." She shivered at the thought. Poor those dragons, she let him continue, finding his story was interesting.

"It's like they have an invisible red string that connected their lives." Lucy 'ooh-ed' and nodded.

"These necklaces have exactly the same function as the invisible threat of dragons. See? Those are for a couple. The bigger one belongs to the male, and the smaller one belongs to—"

"The female…" she continued. The man grinned and nodded. "If some random guy put the male necklace on, and a girl put the female one on, the necklaces will stick to their body and stuck to each other forever, until one of them die." Lucy's eyes watered slightly at the explanation.

"That was… cruel. What if they don't love each other?" the rosette shrugged. "Who knows?" she pouted, wiped her eyes. "But that's romantic.." a soft smile curled on her lips. Silence enveloped them for a while before she came to realization.

"You seem to know much about artifacts." She commented, curiosity played on her face. The man smirked, which made her heart race. He turned around and started to walk away before peeking from his back.

"Let's just say that I know much about expensive things." The blonde singer got more confused, _what was that suppose to mean?_

"See you later, Ms. Heartfilia." Her eyes widened. "Hey! How do you know my name? I don't even know yours!" she protested. She wanted to know that handsome man's name too! A chuckle left his lips. Without any more word, he disappeared among the crowd that started to grow.

Lucy ran to the city hall quickly. She was almost late! It was already 6 o'clock and she hadn't put on her dress and make up yet! Speeding up, she waved at the guard that nodded at her with a smile and run to the back of the hall, entering her room where she needed to prepare everything for her little show.

The exhibition would start in about two hours and the guards were already readying themselves in their spots. Every artifact indeed was expensive, cost million jewels. That's why the Oracion Seis asked the mayor to guard the hall with many armies he could get, preventing a thief from getting in.

"Lucy! Where have you been?!" the mayor scolded her, the young lady bowed few times, muttering apologies at him. The mayor looked around in anxiety. "I have to meet the Oracion Seis already, just… get in your room, put on the dress and quickly get into the meeting hall. I hope you're not afraid of being alone because everyone is already in the meeting hall."

Lucy gaped, the meeting hall and the main hall were different. The meeting hall was the place she'd be singing at while the main hall was where the exhibitions was. Her changing room was located behind the main hall, so she needed to go there alone?

"B-But, what if there's a thief? Or rapist? Or kidnapers?" she stuttered. The mayor waved his hand. "There's no way, the security is tight. No bad guy can come in!" the mayor laughed at her weird question, the blonde just chuckled nervously. "Ahaha.. If you say so.."

"Right, now move your butt and dress up! Quickly!"

"Hai!" she ran inside quickly.

One of the guards yawned. From their spot now, they could hear the mayor's speech clearly. And none of them liked any single bit of his speech because it always so damn long. Another guard yawned. No one dared to make any sound, the people from Oracion Seis' order, said that chatters would let their guard down, so, no one talked.

Another yawn.

When was this thing going to be done?

"Sleepy?"

The guard yawned in response. "Yes. I don't have much time to sleep."

"Ah, is that so? Watch the game last night?"

He yawned again and nodded. "Yeah, what about you?"

"Me? I watched this very cool movie last night, the lacryma was surprisingly clear."

"Really? What's that?"

"Tutorial how to steal something by fooling the dumb guards." All guards laughed at the person's joke. Before snapping to realization and turned around to see a cloaked figure resting his elbow on the Dragon Crystal Egg's glass box. Twirling the egg with his finger with no mistake before plopping it into his bag.

"You know? I thought this thing would be heavy, but it's pretty light."

The guards made no move, still stunned. The cloaked figure laughed, waving his cloak towards them, "See you later pals. Tell the Oracion Seis guys I like these artifacts." He said, showing the bag full of the artifacts.

One guard made the chance to look around, and he gasped, eyes widening. Every box was empty! With no scratch, no hole, just like new, but empty. They snapped back to realization.

"CATCH HIM!"

The figure laughed, running at speed, the bag bounced with his movements. Looking down, he saw two things caught his attention the most. The Huckleberry. A face of the blonde haired lady flashed in his mind. He smirked at the memory of this morning.

_Shoot_

The man gasped as an arrow shot his hand that was holding the amulet and caused the bigger amulet to fly off his hand, dragged with the arrow flying into the wall, stab the wall and stuck on it. The amulet hung on the arrow on the high wall. The man cursed his scratched wrist and plopped the female amulet inside his pocket.

Jumping to the second floor without difficulty, he tried to grab the arrow but it was too high. The guards' footsteps echoed loudly, sent him into a panic. Trying again, he pulled the arrow hard, sending it off the wall and the amulet fell to the first floor. He sighed in relief.

Just then, a soft hum was heard and the man looked down, keeping his balance by palming the wall silently, eyes widened when a young lady wearing formal red dress walked in from the dark corridor. Her blonde hair being pinned into a bun, she was gorgeous.

Wait, what was she doing here?

Something fell on the floor right in front of the singer, making her looked down automatically. Her eyes widened slightly at the sight of it and she picked it up. The orange color of it sparkled under the lamp. What was an artifact doing here?

A figure jumped in front of her, earning a squeak from her and she jumped in surprise when the cloak on his head came off and revealed ruff of pink hair. She gasped, "Pinky! What are you doing here?!"

"No time, give me that!" he reached for the amulet but the girl stepped back. "What are you going to do with it, how did you come in, and for what purpose?!" she interrogated. The rosette groaned, "Just give me that!" he reached for her hand but she held it high.

"Don't tell me you're going to steal it!" she gasped at the thought while stepping back again, putting her hands higher as she switched holding the necklace from right to left hand, left to right hand. "Why you—"

"GET HIM! QUICKLY!" the guards' voice got closer. "Ha! So you are a thief!" she glared at him and about to run when she tripped over her own dress and fall on top of him, the amulet slid from her hands and fell around his neck.

They froze.

"AAAA! GETITOFFGETITOFFMEE!" the pinkette screamed in panic and tried to pull the amulet off his neck but the fire inside it lit up and stuck to his chest like a magnet. He glared at the woman, Lucy stepped back with dropped jaw. "Oh.. Uh… Sorry.. That was…" she squeaked when he stood up, she followed him, and stepped closer to her, murderous glare on his face.

"You…" he said dangerously.

"THERE HE ISS!" the guards yelled. The pink haired man cursed and glared at her, grabbing her waist and pulled the female amulet out his pocket. Lucy paled. "Oh, no! Don't you dare!"

"You started it.." he said and encircled the amulet around her neck. She squirmed, his onyx eyes gleamed evilly. The amulets' fire lit and for a second their heart stopped beating, like a lightning just struck them, before they gasped for air, looking at the pair amulets.

The pinkette smirked.

"I'm not going to be blamed for stealing alone now." he said making her face paled as he swung his bag over his shoulder and grabbed her hand, running away from the guards.

"And by the way, yes. I'm a thief, and you're stuck with me now, Lucy Heartfilia."

* * *

**Done! the first chappie of Huckleberry~ XD Lol, the title always managed to make me laugh.. I mean, Huckleberry.. Moaahahaha.. At first I wanna name the amulets like usual 'Dragon's Mate Amulet' but then this Huckleberry name came fall from the sky through a star.. I figured it really suit the story so, yeah..**

**Puuh, I really hope you guys like it.. It will make me really happy :D**

**So, pwetty pwease leave a review guys! That means a lot xD**

**-Nachii-**


	2. Chapter 2

**Puh, I'm back with chapter 2! xD**

**thanks for ur reviews guys, it makes me so happy! :D actually I was about to update this earlier but certain reasons kept blocking my way.. TT^TT well, at least I update this today.. coz tomorrow will be the last day of vacation.. OAO**

**anyway, here you go Huckleberry chapter 2, hope you like it~ xD**

* * *

Chapter 2

Stumbled, tripped, jolted, the pink haired guy didn't stop running. The smaller hand he dragged never loosened as Lucy tried to keep the pace with him.

"Gosh! Can you slow down a bit?!"

"Perhaps, Ms. Heartfilia, you don't hear the sounds of footsteps behind us?" She huffed and closed her mouth. He was right, the guards were still yelling and colors of orange from the torch behind them could be seen a bit clearly.

"Sorry, Mr. Thief, but I never want to spend my Thursday night by running aimlessly!" he groaned and made a sharp turn to right, tugging her hand and made her almost tripped, much to her annoyance.

"For God's sake—" Her eyes widened when he turned over and covered her mouth from making another girly sounds. "Ssh, be quiet.." he whispered to her ear, his other hand placed on top of her head, forcing it to duck under the bushes. Lucy squirmed on her spot, face burning in embarrassment at the close contact. But she stopped moving instantly when the guards passed the bushes they were under, discussing something she didn't dare to hear.

When they kept running forward, the pinkette behind her sighed in relief and let go of her mouth, though he still kept his hand on top of her head. She stopped breathing for a while when that hand slid down the side of her head, surprisingly warm. Her heartbeat quickened before she snapped back to reality and turned around at him.

"Great, I was late, scolded by mayor, trapped in a Huckleberry amulet, chased by armies, and STUCK WITH A THIEF! THIS COULDN'T BE WORSE!" She yelled at his face. The pink haired thief groaned.

"It's not my fault that you got stuck!" she gave him a look. "Well, yes, I was the one who put in on you.." she looked at him again, daringly. He sighed, "I'm sorry I put it on you.."

Another look, "And caused you trouble."

She raised a brow, "And dragged you here."

She softened her eyes, "And maybe caused you to get eaten by bear, or lions, or wolf."

"…" she blanked. The pinkette gulped, "Wait, I was just kidding! There's no bear and lion here! Wolf, maybe, but—GAH! Don't cry!"

"My life sucks.. I must be cursed!" she pulled her knees to her chest, burying her face in it, making the guy panicked. "W-Wait! I was—Argh! Please don't cry.. Hey, Lucy…" he patted her head, but jumped in shocked when she looked up at him, narrowing her eyes, trying to look murderous, though instead she looked cute.

He cursed, "What now?"

"How do you know my name?" he raised a brow, wondering how was that able to send her mind off the wolf and lion thingy. With a nervous smile, he answered, "I've been in Clover Town for few weeks." she blushed a bit at that.

"But I don't know your name.." he sighed and got up, swinging her bag over his broad shoulders once more. "Was that matter? Come on, we need to find a place to sleep." A hand grabbed his and stopped him from moving any further, he turned around to see Lucy's determined eyes, a cute pout adorned her face.

"Look, we're stuck to each other until God-knows-when. And I don't want to call you as 'Pinky' all the time. I need to at least know your name!" she blurted out a bit quickly, though from the blink of his eyes she knew he caught it.

"Natsu." He said, twirling their hand so he was the one taking her hand, a weird sensation shot through their body, Natsu shrugged it off and tugged, pulling her. "My name's Natsu Dragneel." She smiled in satisfaction and nodded. "See? That's much better. Natsu is better than Pinky, right?" he pouted and half glared at her before wondering.

"Hey, you're not mad anymore?" she scoffed. "I'm still mad." Natsu sighed, dragging her to a cave in the corner of the forest and set his bag down, sitting on the rocky ground. Lucy bit her lip before sitting down too.

"Can't we just send ourselves—Yourself away to the armies, explained everything then TaDa! Everyone will be happy!" she clasped her hands together with hopeful eyes. The pinkette rolled his eyes, "Easy for you to say. I don't want to get in a prison and give these artifacts to them."

"But Natsu, stealing is a bad thing!"

He mused with a smirk, "But I like being bad." She blushed at that. "I wanna go home."

"You'll die then." She glared at him. "Why did you steal that artifact anyway?" he let out a sigh and ran his fingers through his hair. She bit her lip again and looked away, _how could a guy that handsome become a thief? _She thought.

"We need to get out of this town as fast as we can. Go to sleep Lucy.." she frowned, not even scolding him for telling her what to do. With a glance to the starry sky she sat down, watching as Natsu already laid on the ground, his bag as his pillow. Lucy looked down and couldn't help but feeling so lucky she had her purse with her, her money was all there and another important stuffs.

Laying on her back, she looked at the rosette's back facing her. She couldn't help but feel curious again. He wasn't telling the full story, well, he hadn't tell anything and it bothered her. Though it made him seems mysterious, and all cool, but still.

"Natsu?" he hummed in response. So he wasn't sleeping yet. "Why did you steal them?" he sighed without looking. "We're still on that page?" she shrugged.

"I'm curious. Curiosity killed the girl."

"I thought it killed the cat." She nodded sharply, "That's my version. Now, tell me." It seemed like he gave up coz he was now turning to her, resting the side of his head with one arm. "I just steal it for fun, I heard they're expensive so I stole it. End of story, good night."

She puffed her cheek. "That doesn't sound like the real story." He blinked dramatically. "I don't know, was it the real story? How do you know whether it's real or not?" she opened her mouth to say something back, but closed it instantly, thinking about unknown thing before tapping her chin.

"I guess it's the effect of the Huckleberry amulets.." she whispered, eyeing the necklace around her neck. The rosette raised a brow. "Really?" her nodded made him confused even more. He himself only knew tiny bits of information about the amulets, not the entire story, so he couldn't conclude it by himself.

"So…?" her sentence left hung in the air, as Natsu stared at her with unreadable expression. But she didn't say anything left, only stared at him.

His eyes widened slightly when she brought her hand and cup his right cheek with her tiny smooth hand. "What on earth are you doing?" he asked. She smiled, "You felt nervous," she said and patted his cheek. Her touch relaxed him without he knew it, and he let out a breath.

"If by any chance, I said that my dad is a dragon, what would you say?" he asked, expecting her to run and leave him here.

"MOAHAHAHAHA! NICE ONE, DUDE!" she laughed. Natsu face palmed, making her stopped. "Wait, you were serious?"

He shrugged, "Not really, that's just how I call him. But in the world full of magic everything's possible, right?" now that she thought about it, he was right. Magic was used freely on Earthland, mages and ordinary humans lived peacefully together.

"So, you can use magic?"

"Shush, do you want me to tell you or not?" she closed her mouth instantly. "My father's name is Igneel, well, I idolized him so much because he taught me everything. He was a very powerful fire mage with a power like a dragon, that's why I called him dragon." He grinned, forcing Lucy to smile back.

"My mom, she is the a beautiful but scary lady named Grandine Dragneel. She can use…uh, air magic? I'm not sure, what I know is my little sister got her ability while I got dad's ability." Her eyes widened in amazement. She opened her mouth but closed it when he waved his hand in front of her face.

"One day when they were on a job, they found a cave and bunch of lifeless bones in it." His eyes turned serious, "Dragons' bones." Light gasp escaped her throat. "They also found the jewels, jars, pots, everything, much more than those in the museum before.

"When they reported it to the kingdom, the magic council kept the artifacts, but my parents signed the paper that they belonged to the Dragneels." He explained, playing with the stone he found and tossed it to the ceiling, catching when it fell, and threw it again and again.

"Uh, one day my parents went missing, I don't know why. And the paper went missing from our home, but there was a small note with my dad's handwriting said 'Take what's ours.' I didn't get it at first, but when I heard that the artifacts now belong to some group of people, I get even more confused." He said, facing Lucy again, the blonde smiled at him, giving his hand a squeeze.

"My dad's best friend, asked the council about the artifacts and my parents, but they said my parents were the only one who canceled the contract and give the artifacts to those people, but I didn't believe, I mean… My dad loved those artifacts so much and there's no way he would… I JUST KNEW IT!" he groaned in frustration.

Natsu took a deep breath, his hand squeezed Lucy's harder, somehow it relaxed him so much.

"So when I figured that the artifacts will be shown in some museums, I couldn't stand back. I should know, I should know what happen that night. What happened to my parents. I just couldn't just sit and stare…" he whispered, drawing circles on her palm with his thumb.

"That's why you stole them…" Lucy concluded, looking at him. He nodded. "Yeah, because it was ours, and it's still ours. If I just give myself away, the artifacts will come to their hands again…"

"Aren't the council feeling anything suspicious with Oracion Seis?" he shrugged, "Who knows? It's not like they care about us.." Lucy felt like crying at his tough life. She pulled herself and rested her head on his shoulder. "Fine, I won't give ourselves away. Sorry to hear that…" he sighed, resting his chin on top of her head.

"It's fine. If I didn't come to steal it, I wouldn't have met you." He grinned, make her blush got redder than usual, and she never blush before!

"I don't think I can sleep now…" she muttered made him chuckle. "And why is that?"

"You know, like usual, scolded by mayor, trapped in Huckleberry amulet, chased by armies, stuck with a thief, maybe will be eaten by bear, hearing a sad history and stuffs.. This is really couldn't be worse." He chuckled, "Maybe it could be worse, considering that tarantula on your shoulder."

She rolled her eyes, "Tarantula on my shoulder? What's next? Leech on my pimple? Or snakes on my—" something climbed on her left shoulder, she looked to the side to see big spider on her shoulder, her face drained blood.

"KYAAAAAAAA!" her scream echoed between the stalagmites, waking the bats, making them fly randomly on their direction, she screamed again, Natsu cursed, lit his hand on fire, shooting them to the bats, but accidentally burned her skirt, earning him another loud high-pitched ear killing screams.

"THIS IS REALLY COULDN'T BE WOOORSE!"

* * *

"KYAAAAAAAAA!"

"FOR GOD'S SAKE LUCY STOP YELLING! YOU'RE KILLING MY EARS!" Natsu yelled, covering his ears. Curse him for forgetting to tell her how sharp his senses are. He looked at the terrified blonde. It was morning now, no tarantula, no bats, nothing! Why did she scream? He freaked out a bit when she made no move, still gaping at the newspaper he brought earlier.

Actually, he woke up first before her, and went to the nearest outskirt of the wood to get some food, and eventually he found a newspaper from the city on the ground. After picking it up and check the date, he quickly ran back to the cave before he went away too far.

"Look at this! It's all your fauuuult!" she stomped back to the cave and sat down crossed arm, looking away from the man. Natsu raised a brow and looked at the newspaper and read it, eyes widening.

"No way…"

"See? It's all your—"

"FREE BUFFET IN GRANNY'S RESTAURANT? LUCY LET'S GO THERE!" she twitched.

"THE MAIN NEWS, IDIOT! NOT THE ADVERTISEMENT!" he backed away and nodded, scanning the said section. His eyes widened even more.

_The lovely singer, Lucy Heartfilia, was seen running away from the guards with Huckleberry Amulets dangled around her neck. It was said that she was one of the thieves that stole the Dragon Artifacts in the City Hall last night. Now the city guard are trying their best to catch those two, while the other suspect still remain unknown, without no description._

He gulped, sensing bad aura came from his companion. "Umm…"

"This is all your fault! You heard that? YOUR FAUULT!" she punched his chest couple times nonstop with her small hands, which he found annoying. He was about to stop her but the sloppy ground made them tripped, falling to the ground with a thud, the amulet stuck to each other made another static electricity shot them hard.

Gasped were heard from their own throat, both looking at each other's eyes, widening their own eyes. Natsu and Lucy didn't move, just staring, wide eyed. When the sensation wore off they gasped for air, inhaling as much oxygen as their lungs managed. She was the one first opening her eyes, looking as the man clutched his chest and the amulet in his palm.

"What….was that?" she asked breathlessly. Her eyes spinning. The pink haired man shook in head in clueless. They looked at their amulets and back to each other's eyes. Feeling something they couldn't put their fingers at. Something…odd, like it was...

They shook their heads in unison. No, there's no way.

"We should hurry." Natsu said, gathering his bags and straightened his scarf. Lucy followed without objection, "I need casual clothes, duh. I can't run with dress.." she mumbled, pretty sure he heard her. The thief thought for a moment. "Do you have any casual clothes in your home?"

"Apartment, sir. And yes of course. But how're we gonna get in the town without being chased around?" she corrected and asked. Natsu was silent for a few seconds befre he picked up his black cloak and put it around her body, pulling the hood over her head. She blushed at his action. "W-what about you?"

"They don't know that I am the thief, but you? Another story." He said, "You have your apartment key, right?" she nodded. "But I'm pretty sure the guards are guarding my home now."

"Then I'll be the one who'll grab your clothes." She blushed madly, "No way! You… You.. You're a man! And… and… Uh…" she stuttered, she knew she needed his help, but imagining him taking her shirts, pants, skirt, underwea—

"Kyaaaa…" she squealed to her hands covering her face. Natsu looked at her like she was somewhat crazy. Finally, she looked up with flushed face, but determined eyes, what a weird combination. He decided that she really was a weirdo. "Give me your dagger." She said in low voice like in horror movie, but failed nonchalantly as she coughed. He sweat dropped and felt pity to her so he gave her a small dagger from his pocket.

He watched as she ripped her dress until it was knee-length. "Uh, why did you do that?"

"I can't run in a dress, duh.." he managed to let out a small 'Oh'. "Man, I love this dress.." she whined as the cut part fell to the ground. "Now, clearing the evidence." Natsu cracked his knuckles.

"Don't make it sounds like I'm killing or something!" she protested, make Natsu chuckled. He grabbed the remaining of the dress between his fingers and burned it, much to Lucy's whines.

"Faster is better, we're heading to Acalypha after this." Lucy's eyes widened, "Acalypha?"

"Mm, why?" she pouted and looked away, "Nothing, come on. You said faster is better." He nodded and walked beside her.

* * *

After taking some clothes and stuffed in into her backpack, taking some other things, they ran quickly towards the wood once more. Luckily they were not so much guards so they were quite safe. They went to Acalypha, the nearest town from Clover Town, by feet because there was no train to catch, and for some reason Natsu was relieved by that.

Changing to a pair of shorts, a pair of brown boots with heels, a tank top with a jacket on it and rolled her hair to a bun before hid it with a hat, Lucy let out a sigh at her appearance while Natsu simply gave her a thumb up.

"Now you look Lucyer than before!" he clapped, swinging an arm around her shoulders. She huffed and nodded, these attires were fresher than the dress. "Can we…crash somewhere when we arrive in Acalypha?" she asked quietly, kicking the rocks with her boots. "Sure? Where to? A restaurant?"

"Have you ever thought about something beside food?" he grinned sheepishly, "I'm pretty hungry, you know? Anyway, where to? You didn't answer my question!" she sighed and gripped the hand around her shoulders.

"My parents grave."

He stopped, looking down towards her face. She was looking down, fiddling with her locket absent-mindedly. "Your parents are dead?" she smiled at his bluntness. "Yes, my mom died because of a disease when I was ten, and my father because of the same reason when I was 17.."

He bit his lips and pulled her closer, "How old are you now?"

"20, young and healthy." She smiled at him, he grinned and flicked her nose, "Yay! I'm a year older than you! I'm 21!" his grinned widened. She giggled, "Yeah, since then I moved to Clover Town and becoming a singer." Natsu chuckled.

"My parents went missing when I was 11. At July 7, X777." She blinked rapidly, "But that was the date my mother died…" they looked at each other before laughing.

"Man, this world is weird!" they said, laughing.

They arrived at Acalypha at sunset. The orange light illuminated around them. The city of Acalypha was a quiet city. After grabbing something for dinner, they walked around the town to look for a place to sleep. They were tired, and aching to sleep on a bed, a real fluffy bed, not a rock covered ground.

"Lucky I still have some saving…" Lucy muttered, checking her purse. "I need to look for some money tomorrow.." she sighed and looked to the side, Natsu was walking beside her with face up looking to the starry sky. "Do you still want to see you parents grave?" she nodded. "We need to do things quickly." She stated.

"Uh, it's okay, we can visit them tomorrow, don't be such in a rush!" he said, intertwining his fingers behind his head. "No, I want to see it as fast as possible, it's been few years since I last visit their graves.." he nodded in understatement and offered his hand. She looked up to see his grinning face.

"Come one then, lead the way!" she grinned back and took his hand, leading the way to the cemetery.

Unlike any other cemetery that got all creepy at night, Acalypha's cemetery was adorned by light and street lamps everywhere. Flower bouquets sellers were everywhere, with various bouquets. Lucy placed her money and took two bouquets, the old lady eyed her with soft eyes.

"Visiting your beloved ones?" she asked, Lucy smiled sadly and nodded, "My parents."

"May the parents rest in peace." The blonde nodded again, "Thanks," she smiled a bit wider and softer, but stopped when the elder said, "What a nice necklace."

"Thank you grandma." A voice answered and dragged the frozen Lucy inside the cemetery gate. She looked up to see Natsu scowling at her, "That was close, sheez…" he sighed in relief. She binked back to reality and whispered a small 'Sorry,' before walking towards two graves, side by side, with white gravestone with gold sculpture.

Written, "Layla Heartfilia and Judo Heartfilia." Natsu raised a brow, "I think I've heard that name before…"

"Of course, the Heartfilia used to be a very rich family." Lucy answered, the man looked at her kneeling figure, "Ah, is that so? I forgot…" he said, playing with his scarf. She nodded and brushed the gravestones with her fingers, placing the flowers on the grave. After saying something so softly, even Natsu was having a hard time catching it, she stood up, just like that, no tears. He was quite shocked how strong she could be. This Lucy right now, was a different Lucy he often saw in lacryma vision in Clover Town. The real Lucy Heartfilia, was stronger, prettier, and real, so different than the one he heard from people.

* * *

"No. No no no NO!" she waved her hands in front of her face, backing away from her pink haired friend. Natsu screamed in his palms at her stubbornness. "Lucy-"

"NO!" the thief groaned and pulled her hand and yanked her towards him, leaning to her ear, "Look, there are no option left! This is the last hotel we find, and it's the last available room!" he half whispered half screaming at her.

"But it's a single room! A single bed!" she whispered back, the receptionist girl looked at the pair weirdly.

"We slept next to each other last night, dammit!"

"That's different! That was a cave, this is a hotel room!"

"Do you prefer sleeping in a cave? Because I don't mind!" he rolled his eyes and glared at her. She glared back and looked away. "For God's sake Lucy! I'm not a rapist!" she huffed and gripped her locket, pacing back and forth impatiently, anxiously.

"Fine! But if… IF you do anything—"

"Don't you trust me?" he asked, yanking her arms again, locking eyes with her. She looked at him back, searching something, before their amulets glowed and she sighed. "Fine." She said in defeat.

He grinned and grabbed the key, her hands and ran to their room. He was tired like hell!

"AT LAST!" he cheered in victory, kicking the door open, throwing Lucy's purse harshly, but put his bag gently, ignoring the indignant 'Hey!' from her, and sprinted to the bed, slamming his body on to the fluffy bed.

The blonde groaned and picked her purse up before kicking her boots on the floor. She clicked her tongue and shoved Natsu to the side a bit. He stood up and grinned at her. "See? No argument, faster getting the bed, everyone's happy!" she scoffed and took a pen from the nightstand.

"What are you doing?"

"Dividing our area." He looked at her with bored eyes, "Lucy, I won't do anything to you!" she blushed madly, drawing a vertical line on the white bed sheet, dividing the bed into two side. Natsu pouted and crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes following her fingers and the pen on the sheet.

When she was done, she huffed in satisfaction. "Now, if you ever dare to cross the line—wait, it sounds inappropriate—if you are to cross the mark line, I swear I'll kick your ass, and chop you to death, and give what's left of you to the pigs downstairs!"

"There's no pig downstairs."

"Dogs then." He gulped and nodded quickly. "Good, now, good night." She said and turn off the lamp and laying down on the bed, in a matter of second drifted off to sleep.

Natsu blinked, "Okay, that was quick…" he said and laid down too, facing the blonde haired young lady in front of him. She looked so calm and beautiful like this. He had the urge to swept the bangs out of her face but retreated his hand once he remembered her threat.

He groaned, damn girls and their weird antiques. But then he thought about it again, Lucy was the weirdest girl he met. He tried to remember if his girl-friends were like this, but as long as he remembered, she was the weirdest one, but that was what made her cute.

His train of thought cut off when something tugged his shirt. He looked down to see Lucy held the hem of him white shirt. _Wasn't she the one told him not to cross the line? _He sweat dropped. She looked cold, of course, it's almost autumn.

Now what? He didn't want to be blamed, he also didn't want her to get cold. He face palmed and grabbed his backpack, pulling some sort of lacryma camera from it. Taking the picture of her hands tugging his shirt for evidence and life guarantee, he put the camera back inside and pulled her by the waist and another hand went to the back of her neck.

"You started it." He whispered to her ear before tucking her head under his chin, burying his nose in her hair. "Good night Luce." He whispered again before adding.

"Don't kill me tomorrow." Before sleep took control of him.

* * *

**Chapter 2 done! xD**

**now, I have few reasons why I put Igneel as a mage here, not a dragon. First, coz human Igneel will suit the story better, while if he's a dragon the story will be much more complicated.. *believe it or not I just got the idea this morning when I finished it* and second, you know... Red haired, smaller figure of Natsu.. it's just suit him better and I prefer typing it that way coz it sounds... hotter? *kicked* and third, coz I wanna put Grandine as his wife..**

**I just love seeing Dragneel family that way, well, I'll love it more if it's contains Lucy and Nashi Dragneel.. MOAHAHAHA xDD **

**Puun... I just love Natsu so much! must be the effect of watching newest eps of FT.. FOR GOD'S SAKE NATSU IN WHITE TUX IN SO HANDSOME! XD**

**ahem, I've talked too much, shut up Nachii! well, thanks for reading minna! and pwetty pwease leave a review! I'll love it! xd**

**-Nachii-**


	3. Chapter 3

**Dearest all the Huckleberry readers and reviewers.. I'm so sorry for updating so laate TT^TT like I said, school is busy is killing me, and last, I got some disturbing WBs in my brain, man, that was annoying..**

**Gupyaa! Heck, this was the second week of the next term of school and it's already so busy, and full of works! Blame my teachers for having so much energy to give us the tasks.. xD **

**Anyway, is there any review I still haven't reply yet? If so, I'm sorry.. I dun hv so much time to reply all, but thanks for your reviews guys! It makes me so happy xDD**

**So, here you go Huckleberry chaps 3! Hope you like it~ :D**

* * *

Chapter 3

It was a surprise for Lucy Heartfilia to feel so warm in the next morning. Since when did autumn become so warm? It was warm-so warm-too warm, actually. All she remembered from last previous days was she was trapped in Huckleberry amulet with the most handsome in humanly possible man with pink hair and charming onyx eyes and warm body, just like this warmth—

Her eyes snapped open. _What?_

Pink hair, handsome face, arms around her body. The young lady did the only thing she able to do.

"KYAAAAA!" His eyes shot open at the sound and he quickly stood up, flaming hand flew randomly.

"What? Who's screaming?" he said with half lidded eyes, blinking few times to get his vision clear. Finally getting back his eyesight, the pink haired fire mage turned to the side to see a scowling-pouting Lucy pulling the blanket to her chin, sitting beside him.

"Huh? Who—Ah… Lucy… Why did you scream?" she rolled her eyes at his bluntness. Groaning, she pushed the blanket to his face and stood up, fixing her hair before glaring at him.

"You! You crossed the line!" he blinked several time from her accuse before his face stretched into a victory grin.

"No, you did it first—here-" he put out a camera lacryma and showed the picture of her tugging his shirt, making the blonde flushed bright red, "See? You did it first, then you started to act like you felt cold, that's why I hold you, close, tight…"

She slapped him with the closest pillow she found. "No need to say that aloud, jerk." She muttered with gritted teeth. He chuckled and straightened his scarf around his neck and twirled his amulet absentmindedly.

"Are you mad?"

She glared, but said nothing, just stomping away from him with beet red face and a pout and opened the bathroom door, "I'm going to take a bath, don't do anything stupid! And… Just don't do anything!" she said aloud, before slamming the bathroom door closed. Natsu sighed with a smile and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. I'm going to fetch some breakfast. Hurry your butts off, Luce" He heard her small agreement and a grin stretched on his face before he fixed his clothes and walked out of the room.

* * *

"Come on come on! I'm craving for a latte!" the rose haired mage pulled her to a café nearby.

"Seriously? We just ate two hours ago!" she protested, yanking her hand back to herself. "And we need to save our money—Hey! Natsu!" she yelled as he grabbed her hand once more, grinning like an idiot. The big wide grin on his face made her realize how cute this guy could be sometimes.

"I still have lots of money! Come on, my treat!"

"But then why did you ste-" she cut herself when she remembered that he only stole the dragon artifacts for his own importance. Natsu looked at her for a moment before his grin went back to his face.

"Done with your smartass thought?"

"HEY!" he laughed and tugged her hand again, pleadingly like a little kid. She sighed and nodded, letting him dragging her to a café, what she didn't get was why the hell he had to drag her to the queuing people.

With a huff she glared at him, "Can't you order whatever is that you want by yourself?" he chuckled and shook his head, "What if we got separated?" she opened her mouth, before closing it again, the pink haired young man nodded. "Exactly, that's why we need to stick together all the time~" he sung, pulled her by shoulder, the blonde bit her lip to prevent something like blush crept up her face.

"I swear if you-"

"What's your order, Miss?" the barista's voice shut them and they turned to the girl smiling at them…knowingly. Lucy looked up to her companion and nudged his zoning out face.

"Huh? Oh, one caramel latte please.. Luce?" he asked down, tucking his chin on the top of her head, the young lady squirmed with bright red face, "Um, same please…" she said, already forgetting the reason why she got mad at him from the start.

The barista girl looked at them with a grin, turning back to ready their drinks. She could hear the pair argued about something, but from her point of view, she bet they were talking about weddings…or babies.

What a cute couple.

"Here you go, Miss." She handed them the drinks and watched at the blonde one took both cups and the pinkette one put the money on the counter, laughing when his 'girlfriend' squeaked afraid that the cups would fall, the barista couldn't help but say,

"You have a very beautiful girl, there, sir."

Lucy's face exploded in color as soon as the sentence entered her innocent ears. She quickly turned to the barista girl once more, "But I'm—"

"Thank you very much." The sentence from Natsu's lips shocked her even more and she turned her neck back to him, damn, her head hurts. "Natsu!"

He grinned, "But I've noticed it since long time ago, she's really beautiful, isn't she?" the barista's face was full of amusement as she nodded, chuckling to herself. The rose haired guy sent her a final grin before grabbing a cup from the blonde's shaking hand so he could linked their hands, how sweet.

What she didn't know was that outside the café Lucy glared at him, "What was that for?!" he backed away from her wrath and rolled his eyes playfully, smirking in the process. "She thought we are a couple! Heck, that hotel guy thought we're a couple too!" he took a sip of his latte and grinned at her.

"Lucy… we're stuck together, remember? Get use to it," he took her hand again and began walked them down the street, he was quite happy she didn't complain or snatched her hand way. "But—"

"Come on, it's quite fun, you know?" she flushed bright red, couldn't shake a pang of feeling she felt when he said like it was just a joke. "But I'm not your gi-"

"Maybe someday you will be." Her eyes widened at the words left his lips and looked up, couldn't believe what she just heard. Whoa, did they really just meet few days ago?

"Luce is spacing out agaaaain~"

Her brows twitched, she suddenly thought it would be great to kick him somewhere now, maybe in his gut or groin.

"She's so weeeird~"

Okay, face would be nice. Then she could work on the others. From the corner of her eye, she could see the rosette looking at the city's view with his hand still holding hers.

_Look away before he caught you staring, Lucy! _her minds screamed but she ignored it, couldn't resist the urge to stare at the man beside her, the one holding her hand like he was her boyfriend. Looking down to her chest, she saw the amulet hung around her neck covered by her blouse. This amulet caused everything, this situation, everything!

It was the reason why she stuck with Natsu until the guards find them, or until they find the one who can remove these amulets without chopping their heads.

Then, Lucy knew she should know that that was the reason why Natsu stuck up to her, becoming this all boyfriend-like thingy, she should know that that was the reason why he shared her his past, his secret, that's the reason why he always being nice to her.

She should've known, right?

So why, the thought of him probably liking her, or wouldn't leave her always crossed the lady's mind? Lucy knew he would leave once these problems went done, then finally they would walk away to their own destination, minding their own business. She should've realize the fact, right?

What else did she need to know?

Ah, right. Lucy Heartfilia was afraid of being alone. Her parents death was enough to make her suffer and left alone on her own, maybe that's why she was afraid that Natsu might leave her one day. She shook her head few times, she only knew him for two days! Three if you count today. She must be crazy. And Natsu must be think that she was crazy if she told him what she was thinking earlier, but when she thought about it again, she never told him about her—

"—Life?"

Lucy blinked. "What?" she cranked her neck up. Natsu stared at her weirdly, "I was saying I want to know about your life."

_Was he a mind reader or something?_

"Uh, what do you want to know?" he shrugged. "Anything, you didn't tell me anything about yourself beside your parents death."

"Hey, you didn't tell me anything about yourself beside your parents' disappearance too!"

"Tell me and I'll tell you." Since when did she become the one got negotiated now? She let out a sigh and nodded, "Fine." He cheered and glued his eyes on her, sparkling childishly. "I'm all ears."

"I know you are."

"Well?"

"Well—"

"LUCY HEARTFILIA!" they gasped and spun to be face to face with a short man, mid age with his suit and his mustache, someone the blonde knew too well and Natsu knew would cause trouble.

"M-Mr. Mayor?" the blood rose up to his face in anger.

"YOU! THE ONE WHO.. WHO…" he took a deep breath and walked towards them, Lucy backed away with each step. "Si-Sir, I can explain. That incident night ago—"

"I know it was you! GOD!" his face burned in anger, scaring the blonde as she backed away once more, Natsu released her hand and looked around, his nose caught something. "Uh, Luce…"

"GUARDS! GET HER!" his senses were right, guards started approaching them—her. The mayor pointed an accusing finger to the blonde haired singer who looked terrified now, clutching her amulet hard. The guards pointed their spears towards them, mostly at her, while Natsu looked around in alarm, checking if there's a hole for them to escape.

And man, people were staring, what a great day.

Just when one guard was about to put handcuffs around her, Natsu grabbed her hand and punched the guard in the gut, before kicking him towards the others, earning light gasp from Lucy. without anymore thought, he dragged her and run away from the guards .

She gasped at the tug and looked up at him, eyes wide, "Are we doing the thing I think we're doing?" she could feel him smirking lightly though she didn't see his face, "It depends on what do you think we're doing. What do you think?"

The grip on his hand tightened just slightest bit, "Did we just run away from guards…and Mr. Mayor?"

A laugh.

"Yes we did! Move your ass quicker Lucy! We're running away!" she shut her eyes tightly, letting the wind sweep her hair side to side a bamboo. Speeding up, she kept her pace next to Natsu, running away hand in hand.

When they arrived in the downtown, the crowd started to grow up. Looking around, they could feel the guards behind them, making panic started to climb up their spines.

"Do something!" she yelled to the pinkette who looked as confused as her. "What?!"

"Anything! Burn them with a burp, or toast them with a fart, anything!"

"….."

"Uh, forget that, that was just a—oh! Look at that! A carriage!" she changed the topic quickly before the young man could register and say something back. She grabbed his hand and run towards a carriage on the street, two beautiful white horses in the front. Surprisingly, a single light tug on her hand slowed her for a moment, making her turn her head without stopping her steps.

"What? We need to hurry!"

"Uh, I don't think that'll do.." he said with a bit of worry tone. She 'Tch-ed' at that and began pulling him again, opening the cart door and shoved him into it, much to his protest. After that she began to hop onto it with a jump, closing the door instantly, shocking the driver.

"LUCY!" Natsu yelled in protest, gripping the windows' bar tightly, just what the hell was wrong with him?

"Your destination, Miss?"

"Far! Far away! Just get us out of here!"

"But Lu-"

With the sound of slashing whip, the horse neighed and began running, creating smokes everywhere they went, footsteps echoed along the streets. The speed made the inside of the carriage jolted in random direction, Lucy shrieked and squeaked along the way but she didn't hear anything from the usually the loudest one Natsu made her turn to him.

The sight caused her jaw to drop.

His face was blue—green? She wasn't sure, as his cheeks puffed and his eyebrows knitted together, uh oh.

"You have motion sickness?!" she asked in disbelief, clutching her hair on either side of her head. The pink haired mage didn't say anything beside a burping and almost vomiting voice, she scrunched her nose in disgust. "Seriously, the incredible you have motion sickness? Why didn't you tell me before?!"

"Arftraidf…" she rolled her eyes, not understanding what he meant.

The driver eyed them confusedly through the mirror, "Um, is your boyfriend alright, Miss?"

"He's not—nevermind." Lucy brushed it off as she looked behind, the guards were still chasing them with horses, "Can't your horse get a bit faster?" she asked politely, tapping her fingers, but inside she really wanted to yell at him to get faster.

"Uh, I'll try, but where do you want to go actually?" he asked, completely clueless about the chasers behind them. Lucy needed to forget about Natsu's motion sickness for a while.

_Grak Shrak Bruk_

She jumped when the wheels hit the rocks on the street couple times, she held onto the chair tightly, the horse neighed loudly. The driver, just concentrating with the road. Natsu still in the same state.

"Don't you have anything to heal the sickness?" she asked in frustration.

"Mmrghsfrg,.." was all she heard as response, the singer groaned impatiently. "GIVE ME YOUR BAG!" she snatched the backpack from him much to his 'unidentified' protests. Sweeping the artifacts to the side, she trashed everything to find something clearly not an artifact that might come in handy. The footsteps behind them grew louder.

"Um, Miss…" the driver called in doubt, finally realizing that there were at least twelve horses behind them. "Who are we dealing with actually?" he asked while making a turn to the outskirt of the town, a forest came into view. The trees everywhere didn't stop them from chasing.

"Clover Town's guards and the mayor." Lucy replied flatly due to her adventure looking for something for Natsu. Little did she know that if she look straight, she could see the horror face of the driver.

"NOOO!" the blonde jumped and head bumping the ceiling with a thud and a wince. She looked up to see the driver now widening his eyes in fear, "YOU'RE A CRIMINAL!"

"WE'RE NOT!"

"We're not? Urghrfhg.."

"SHUT UP PINKY!"

Natsu obliged without objection and closed his mouth, clutching his stomach and felt the nausea washed over him. "We were…uh, just running away from the guards, that's all!" the driver gripped the rein tightly, sweating bullets, "God, I'm helping a criminal runaway.. Please forgive me.." he murmured couple times, making the blonde gawked at him.

"Mrfusshee.." she glared at the hopeless man beside her, keep looking for something she didn't even know what.

"STOP THAT CARRIAGE!" the guards yelled again, making the driver shriek in fear and opening the door on his right. Lucy gasped, "What the heck are you doing?!"

"I'm sorry, I can't help youuu!" he gulped before jumping himself out from the carriage with a yell, "I LOVE MY WIFE AND CHILDREEEN!" he yelled leaving the poor blonde alone with a sick man and two horses.

"CRAP!" she cursed and struggled to the front seat, taking a hold of the rein, she slapped them to the horse's back, sweating bullet herself. "Okay Lucy, calm down, you can do this. just remember what those instructors told you!" she braced herself, but then when she thought about it, she never passed a driving lesson before!

"Kyaaa! There's a tree! Waa! That rock's freaking big! Aw, watch out! OUT OF THE WAY YOU BUNCH OF RABBITS!"

Natsu groaned.

"AT LEAST I CAN DO BETTER THAN YOU! *_BRAK* _okay, maybe not. KYAA! WATCH IT!"

She huffed dramatically, okay, maybe this was a bad idea. The horse neighed and moved against her will, her heart stopped when a big sharp rock bumped the right side of the carriage making it jolted and shook awfully.

"Natsu! You're not helping at all!" she hissed, eyeing the loose reins on her hands, she was pretty sure they would come off any moment now, and it would cause them another trouble. Lucy took a glance behind, the guards were still chasing, but not so close anymore.

"Good, they're not catching –"

"Luce!" a yell from Natsu followed by a gag was heard, Lucy snapped her head back to the road, gasping as a sight of a cliff ahead made her slammed the rein to the back, hitting the break as the horse neighed once more and stopped instanstly.

Their eyes watched in horror as the reins came off the carriage and caused the horse run in the opposite direction and the carriage being pulled by a hard tug, the wheels slide and fell to the cliff, followed by Lucy's loud shout. But luckily the reins entangled on a tree branch, causing the carriage to hung in a jolt.

With another squeaked, Lucy who was in the front seat being pulled by gravity to the backseat with a hard slam, her head bumped the glass window with a thud.

When she opened her eyes with a wince and a hiss, another "KYAAAAA!" followed suit after, made the guy beside her snapped his onyx eyes open and froze when his action caused another great vibration moved the carriage, swinging it back and forth. Not to mention Lucy's panic state only caused it to bounce more.

"Luce! Lucy! Stop moving!" he told her, pulling her body close to him to shush her, though all she did only whimpered and shook. "But that's.. That's.." she began to act all asthma like, breathing in and out quickly like a fish ran out of water. Natsu panicked at her state.

"Stop panicking –okay, what do you do when your panic?" he asked quickly, brushing her hair with his palm smoothly, she sobbed, "I.. sing –OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!" she freaked out again at the sudden bounce, the rosette freaked out more

"O-Okay! Sing with me, come on, sing.. Uh…" he struggle to find a song. "Um, _I'd like to build the world a home…"_ he trailed off nd let her continue, she whimpered and followed, "_And furnish it with love.._

_Grow apple trees and honey bees, and snow white turtle doves…" _he grinned at her and motioned her to keep singing, still rubbing her hair softly, she began to calm down.

"_I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony. I want to hold it in my arms…" _She took a deep breath and let it out. "_And keep it company..."_ she breathed in and sighed, finally calming down.

"Are we cool now?" he asked carefully, peeking at her. She smiled, "Yes…." He grinned.

.

.

.

"GOSH IT'S BOUNCING AGAIN I'M GOING TO DIE!" he face palmed and pulled her even more closer, "Stop moving and it will stop bouncing." Her body was trembling and it worried him, also made his heart fluttered uncomfortably. Hesitation started to build up, _What if he couldn't protect her?_

Natsu Dragneel shook his head. Nah, that kinda thing wouldn't happen anyway.

A crack from the wood behind them made the pair froze on their spot. Lucy squeaked lightly. "Natsu…" he nodded and took a deep breath before lighting his hand on fire, shooting the glass in front of the front seat with a fire ball, they watched as the glass melted.

She didn't look at him, but instead was saying, "What now?"

"Climb up there, I'll keep the balance here." She whined, "But –"

"No buts, we need to hurry." He could feel the shake and trembles on her body, but he needed to protect her, he didn't know, but he knew he'd be okay if she's already protected and safe.

Lucy bit her lip and swung her bag around her back with much difficulties. Looking at him once more, she closed her eyes and leaned against his shoulder for a moment, nuzzling to his neck. "Make sure you'll catch up, safe and sound." She whispered, finding that their position was very comfortable, but he nodded and gripped her hand tightly before letting it go.

"I promise, now go."

She didn't need to be told twice, with a quick jump, she hopped to the front seat and climbed out the melting window, not looking back coz she knew she'd change her mind and jump back to his side. Besides, she knew he was watching her, ready to do something if she fall.

Another crack was heard and she speeded up, gripping the hanging rope tightly in her palm. Climbing up carefully, she sighed in relief as her feet stepped on the tree branch. She looked down at his face and once again munched on her lip.

He gave her a calming smile and pulled himself up, climbing to her side without as many difficulties as her. She felt slightly jealous at that. jumping beside her on the tree, he grinned at her, "Ta Da! 'Everyone's happy'!" he mocked her trademark statement, the blonde rolled her eyes.

"Sure sure. Come on, I'm sure the guards are already tired looking for us." He chuckled and nodded, "Fine fine, whatever you say, Ms. Heartfilia."

"Oh shut up." He grinned and removed his bag from the side to other shoulder.

_CRACK_

Their eyes widened when the tree branch crack and broke in half, Lucy screeched as they fell off, her pink haired friend cursed and quickly grabbed the nearest thing he could grab, which was a small root. Snatching Lucy's hand hurriedly when she just was about to be out of his grasp, she took his hand and gripped it tightly.

Sounds of the carriage crashed the sharp rocks underneath was heard.

Lucy gulped, not daring to look down, though she didn't have any choice as Natsu's bag fell from his shoulder being pulled by the gravity. He gasped and his eyes widened in horror, The Artifacts!

The singer on the other hand found her breath hitched in her throat, leaving her soundless, and held her breath.

The bag stuck to a pointing rock below her feet. They sighed in relief. Natsu pulled her hand in a soft tug to pull her to the cliff, but she protested. "Wait! Your bag!"

"It's okay, we need to climb up first!" he urged, she pouted and began shrugging her hand off of him, his jaw dropped at her action. "Whoa! Lucy!"

"I'm going t get the bag for you!" she twisted her hand, but his grip was strong. He glared at her, "No way. Lucy Heartfilia, stop doing stupid things!"

"Just—" she twisted again, "Natsu! Urgh!" he twirled it harder, huffing in satisfaction when it worked, he gasped as her hand fell off his own and she jumped and hung to the rock, snatching his bag. She grinned at him and pulled her body so her elbow rested on the surface.

"See? I can do –"

_CRACK_

Her eyes widened when the rock cracked and her body fell free from the cliff, watching as Natsu's eyes widened in shock and fear, pure fear. She didn't say anything, unable to think, all she could process was Natsu calling her name and

He jumped too.

Wrapping his arms around her body, she could hear a sound of blazing fire and they were being pulled up, before rolling on the ground on the top cliff where they fell.

Lucy blinked, not understanding the situation. Did she die?

"Gosh, that was close." She turned to her side and saw Natsu laying on his back, his right hand holding hers. She looked lost. "Um…"

He cracked his eyes open and turned to her, his chest falling in raising in speed, he lost his breath for a while. "You're crazy," he muttered. The singer blushed, hugging his bag to her chest, "But these artifacts were your dream…"

"Correction: My parents dream."

She pouted, "You wasted your time getting these back." Natsu groaned and rolled his eyes, pulling himself up and sat beside her. He looked at her straight in the eye making the blonde blushed by his stare. Looking at it was like looking into a black charcoal.

He sighed, finally. "Why did you do that?" she blinked at his question, finding that she didn't know the answer, she just thought that the artifacts were important for him, and she really wanted to make him happy.

Lucy didn't know that she just said everything she thought about, loudly.

Natsu chuckles were the one who woke her u from her thought. "That's a very nice of you, but, I prefer losing them than losing them and you."

Her eyes widened, mouth gaping at him, the man did the same, his eyes widened in realization at what he just said. "Did I really say that?"

"Um…"

They glanced at each other longingly before a smile curled on their lips, chuckled and giggles led to laughter. His face was full of happiness, encircling his arms around her shoulder. She smiled and looked u, brown met black deep intimidating black.

"Thanks."

Surprisingly, when she heard the word left his mouth, his face was forming a relaxed expression, closing his eyes and leaned to her head. "We're stuck together, remember?" was all her reply, leaning back to his shoulder. Natsu heaved a sigh, an odd feeling formed in his chest.

He just didn't understand, for a second when her body fell, he stopped breathing. And now, he couldn't help but feel, like… Damn, he couldn't believe he just felt happy, that she was here, and alive, compared to the happiness that the artifacts were safe. Like she was more important than them, than those things he searched for these years.

He just didn't understand.

Looking down to her smiling face that was playing with her amulet, he smiled softly, fighting the urge to kiss her forehead. "Thank you," he said again, pulling her completely to a hug. She giggled and wrapped her hands around his neck.

"No, thank you. For catching me." He tightened his grip, "No, thanks. For making me catch you."

"Wha?"

He didn't respond and pulled away, soft smile on his face. "Are you tired? We can take a rest somewhere." Her face brightened.

"Very. Is there any place where we can just relax, without being chased?" he tapped his finger on his chin, one hand still around her waist. Finally, his eyes sparkled. With a swift movement, he joined their hands and pulled her gently. She followed him. "Where are we going?"

He peeked at her from his shoulders. "My home."

"Where?"

"Magnolia. Come on! Fairy Tail is waiting!"

* * *

**Fyuuh, it's done.. I can't believe it's done! considering how many times I delete it again and again TTuTT, thank God xD**

**That song earlier was I'd Like to Teach The World To Sing, or was it? I'm not so sure -_- the singer was... Uh... I forgot that girl's name, and too lazy to search it in google.. I heard the song in my English Class xD **

**And yaay! They're going to Fairy Tail! I miss writing about Erza and the others xD hope I can update it as fast as possible, wish me luck xD**

**Oh, and for RedTed, thank you very much for your review and for liking my Fearless and A Sick Fairy, I'm so sorry I can't reply your review, coz I can't find your account.. I'm so sorry.. :'( but thank you very much for every reviews you gave me xD and for your question, yup! Haru-chan was the one who gave me the title, 'Huckleberry'. Lol, I still wanna laugh everytime I hear the title xDD She really is the greatest bestfriend I have xD I hope you'll give me your account name so I can reply it directly, thankies xD**

**So people! Like I say, school is busy, and maybe the next one will be a bit late, but I really appreciate your reviews and I love theem! xDD**

**SO, pwetty pwease leave a review, and thousands hugs from mee! xD**

**-Nachii-**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm baack xD sorry for the late update everyone, the WB haunt me.. OAO**

**and thanks for your reviews minna! I love the single bits of them xD**

**so, just get on to the story, here you go, Huckleberry chapter 4!**

**hope you like iit xD**

* * *

Chapter 4

"Remind me again why on earth did I agree with this?" Natsu asked, gagging once more and held his stomach. Lucy sighed for the nth time at the man sitting beside her, looking green –blue –purple as usual caused by his motion sickness. They were currently in the train, on the way to Magnolia.

"First, I don't want to be chased by armies again. Second, Magnolia is hell far away from here, we can't waste our time, and third, didn't I tell you before that I'm tired?"

A gag.

"Did you even pay attention?" she hissed impatiently. Natsu groaned at her and shook his head, still clutching his stomach. The blonde bit her lip guiltily, she didn't mean to snap at him or something, but she was just too tired, it's night, and it's cold, and it's tiring! Not to mention that they needed to spent about ten hours on the train according to the map.

Lucy's brown eyes darted to Natsu's hat-covered head. They needed to stay hidden, so the singer suggested –forced the rosette to wear a hat to hide his tuff of pink hair, while she got another hat.

"Urgh, I hate train…" she looked back at his looking green –blue –purple face, munching her lower lip. When he made another whining sound, a sigh escaped her lips.

"Come here.." she mumbled, taking a hold to the side of his head, pulling his head to lay on her lap, his eyes widened for a while before looking at her with his pain filled eyes. He was about to ask why the heck did she do that, but when her fingertips combed his hair smoothly, comfortingly, he heaved a sigh and closed his eyes, feeling slightly better.

A smile appeared on Lucy's lips as the man began to look more relaxed, calmer than before. "Better?" he nodded at her question. Lucy smiled wider as he leaned his head to her stomach, his breathing returned to normal, though his face still looked bluish, the blonde couldn't help but feel concern.

"Is there anything I can do? A motion sickness patch or something?"

"I don't bring any, usually my sister would put a spell on me." She sighed, there was no way she could do that. "Sing."

The word caught her off guard. "What?" she blinked.

"Just sing, maybe it'll make me feel better." She blushed, "But I –"

"Come on…" he gag one more time as the train turned to the right, a jolt shook them, Lucy panicked.

"Um, w-what song do you want t-to hear?" She didn't know what made her stuttering, she used to sing in front of hundreds of Clover Town's citizens before, why did she feel so nervous about singing in front of him?

"Anything, you know better, right?"

Lucy looked at him in embarrassment, _what should she do now?_ "But what if you don't like the song?"

"Luce. Just sing."

She gulped and went thinking about the perfect song, brows furrowed in concentration. "Lucy~"

"I'm thinking of a song, shush!"

But actually, she already got a song, she was just too shy to sing in front of him, who knows what he might he do later, tease her nonstop maybe?

"I think I'm going to throw up, ngh.."

"Okay okay!" she straightened herself and began combing running her fingers to his hair again soothingly, busy taking breaths.

"_All I knew, is the morning when I woke. Is I know something know, know something now I didn't before…"_

Natsu listened closely, cracking an eye open, found nothing but her chin, her eyes busy looking out the window. But then she looked down to him, smiling softly. He fingers slowed down, her thumb rested on his forehead.

"_And all I've seen, since 18 hours ago._

_Is green eyes and freckles and your smile in the back of my mind, making me feel right._

_I just wanna know you better know you better know you better now._

_I just wanna know you better know you better know you better now –"_

"Okay, I got it! Can you just get to the next one?" Natsu asked impatiently.

"Who are you to judge? That's the song!"

"Urgh, I'm going to throw up now." Lucy giggled, and began combing his hair again, softer and slower.

"_Cause all I know is we said hello  
And your eyes look like coming home  
All I know is a simple name, everything has changed_,"

She smiled, feeling the urge to giggle as the memory of that City Hall incident replayed.

"_All I know is we held the door__  
__You'll be mine and __I__'ll be yours__  
__All I know since yesterday is everything has changed__."_

The young lady paused, Natsu looked at her. "Hey! Don't stop!"

"You should sing too, it's a duet song."

"You do realize my situation right?"

The blonde haired singer smiled, "But later, you have to sing with me."

"Luc –"

"_Cause all I know is we said hello__  
__And your eyes look like coming home__  
__All I know is a simple name, everything has changed__  
__All I know is we held the door__  
__You'll be mine and __I__'ll be yours__  
__All I know since yesterday is everything has changed__."_

Natsu closed him mouth, looking at her and closed his eyes instantly, listening to her beautiful voice. Gosh, he couldn't help but thanking God that he had motion sickness, as long as he got to hear her voice every day.

He stopped her hand on his hair and grabbed it to his cheek, clutching it close, startling her. She paused for a while, not sure to go on or not. When a smile lingered on his lips, she smiled and nodded.

"_Come back and tell me why__  
__I'm feeling like i've missed you all this time__  
__And meet me there tonight__  
__And let me know that it's not all in my mind__." _

The train's noisy whistle didn't bother them, Natsu kept listening to her singing her voice out. His eyes dropping slowly.

"_I just want to know you better know you better know you better now__  
__I just want to know you know you know you__Cause all I know is we said hello__  
__And your eyes look like coming home__  
__All I know is a simple name, everything has changed__  
__All I know is we held the door__  
__You'll be mine and i'll be yours__  
__All I know since yesterday is everything has changed__."_

Her brown eyes watched as his own eyes began to slide close, before he blinked it open in alarm. Her hand patted his head and signaling him to sleep.

"_All I know is we said hello__  
__So dust off your highest hopes__  
__All I know is pouring rain__  
__And everything has changed__  
__All I know is a newfound brightness__  
__All my days, __I__'ll know your face__."_

Lucy held her yawn, blinking to clear her own eyes, Natsu's eyes were closing in relaxation, making another smile showed on her face.

"_All I know since yesterday is…"_

"_Everything has changed.." _

Lucy smiled at his murmuring voice in the end, before drifted off to sleep.

* * *

When Lucy woke up on the next day, everything was bright, the sunlight knocked her eyes and forcing them to open. She groaned and lifted her head from the wall, feeling it sore. She was about to get up when the weight on her lap shocked her, looking down, she saw Natsu's sleeping face, relaxed as ever.

She didn't have a heart to wake him up.

Raising her hand from his hair to her chest, she sighed in relief when she felt the amulet was still there. Of course, she worried too much.

"Magnolia Station!" someone shouted and Lucy gasped, quickly looking out the window, only having her eyes widened even more. There, a big station stood with many people there, from the horizon she could see many buildings in various size, but the biggest one stood far there, with a weird insignia on it. Lucy cocked an eyebrow but she shrugged it off.

"Natsu! Hey, wake up! We're here!"

"Mmh.. Where?" he groaned, slapping her hand away slightly.

"Magnolia!" she urged irritatedly. His eyes snapped open and he jumped, about to cheer but the sickness seeped into his body again, making him turn all blue –green –purple again. Lucy sighed, "You're hopeless."

With (much) difficulties, Lucy dragged the man not-too-gently out of the train and get her bag, and his 'precious' bag.

"Okay, lead the way to this home of yours." She grinned as his face turned to normal, kissing the ground lovingly. She ignored his cheering mode and looked around. People were staring at her friend, but she didn't pay any attention. Her back ached, her throat dried and she was tired, really wanted to lay on a REAL bed.

"Natsu, I know you love mother nature so much, but can we find a place to rest first? I'm so tired.."

Natsu cocked an eyebrow before a grin plastered on his handsome face. "Yosh! Come on, you'll love Fairy Tail! It's the best guild ever!" Lucy blinked at his sentence, squeaking when he pulled her by her hand. She stumbled a bit before catching up with him, wondering why did she become the one got dragged now.

"Your Fairy Tail is a wizard guild?"

"Of cou –Wait, you never heard of Fairy Tail before?" he slowed down to a small step as she looked at him uncomfortably. "Don't blame me, I'm not so familiar with mage and magic, so…" the rosette pursed his lip in confusion. Now that she mentioned it, he never heard anything about her life, every time he was about to ask, something would step between them.

For some reason, not knowing anything about her making him feel bad and upset.

"Natsu?" the man blinked back to reality at her call. He looked at her with a pout, Lucy looked lost. "I don't know anything about you, do I?"

"Um, yes? Hey! I don't know anything about you either!"

"Tell me and I'll tell you." He mused, a smirk on his face. Lucy bit her lip, face flushing a bit. "Why do you want to know so badly?" he pointed to the amulet under his shirt.

"That's not an answer!" she protested.

"But we're stuck together, duh."

"Well, not forever!"

He was silent, she thought she had hurt his feeling, making her feel bad. She was shocked when he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer.

"But I like you, so that's why even if we're not stuck together anymore, I'll never let you run away from me!" with that, the man began dragging the frozen blonde out from the station, to the bright sun ahead. When the singer looked up, all she saw was the grinning face of him and his warmth engulfed her.

Comforting, so so comforting.

She chuckled, really, this guy was so…odd. So weird, so odd, so strange. Her chuckles interrupted by his, "I'm serious you know." And she smiled, leaning to his shoulders.

"Stop stealing people's property, Natsu."

"I'm only stealing what's mine." He answered, growing confused by her question. His confusion grew bigger when she mumbled, "You're about to steal something from me," not understanding what she meant, he shrugged and released her shoulder, taking her hand instead, deciding that she was a weirdo in her own way.

They were just walking for few minutes when someone bumped to Lucy and dropped her handbag, pouring all the belongings out. She tch-ed and crouched down to gather her things, Natsu laughed before helping her.

And that thing caught his eyes.

The rose haired man picked the thing. That was a golden key with a very nice sculpture, the key glistening with the sunlight. An odd symbol written on it. He twirled, twisted and examined it closer, but found nothing in it, so he thought it was an ordinary key. Even though, Natsu could feel magic came out form it.

"Luce, what is it?" he asked, turning to her as she picked the last thing from her bag. The lady looked at him and the key back and forth. Her eyes widened slightly at the sight of the key before a weak smile adorned her face.

"That was my mom's." she answered lightly, answering him with her eyes still glued to the key on his palm. Natsu was silent, looking at the key with narrowed eyes. Where did he see that key before? He pulled his hand back and looked at the symbol on it, rubbing it with his thumb.

'_We'll be right back, Natsu-kun.'_

Natsu sucked the air from his nose sharply, eyes shut tight.

"Natsu? What's wrong?"

'_Don't forget your keys! This job will take longer!'_

"Natsu?"

'_Don't worry Natsu-kun, if they ever dare to leave you and Wendy-chan, I'll drag them back to you.'_

"Natsu!" said man gasped and opened his eyes in split seconds, looking at concerned Lucy with wide eyes, grasping the hand on his cheek, panting. Lucy looked at him as he took a deep breath, eyes blinking.

'_I swear.'_

"Dammit Natsu wake up!" Lucy yelled, smacking his chest, said man gasped and blinked back to reality, looking at her with shocked expression. "W-what?"

"Don't 'What?' me! What's wrong with you?" she growled, looking at him in concern, the rosette released the breath he didn't know he was holding and shook his head rapidly. Looking at the key before turning back to the blonde. "What happened?" she asked again, worries written all over her beautiful face.

Natsu looked blank. "I don't know.."

She resisted the urge to kick him somewhere, anywhere.

"You got me all worry and your answer is 'I don't know'?" he grinned sheepishly at her. "You're really that worry, huh?"

"Ugh, I hate you.." she mumbled angrily, face red as she looked away from him. The fire mage chuckled, muttering something under his breath that caught her off guard. "Someday you'll say the opposite, though."

She couldn't help but blush redder at the words, as his fingers put the key to her open palm, soft smirk on his face. "Shut up." She warned.

"Oh come on, you know what said, right?" he paused and linked his fingers behind his head, using I as a pillow, peeking from his shoulder, he grinned, "Won't it be a perfect crime, if you steal my heart, and I steal yours?" he smirked when she gaped, face burned like an overcooked tomato.

"C-Chessy."

He smiled softer now, feeling the amulet warming his heart for some reason. From the way she clutched her chest, he guessed she felt it too, and he couldn't help but feel happy.

"Luce," she looked up, "Come on." He jerked his head to the side, motioning her to follow him. Her face brightened and she smiled, following him.

"So, tell me about this Fairy Tail." She said, slumping her backpack from one shoulder to another. Natsu thought for a moment.

"They're…bunch of mages?" she sighed, "I know that idiot, I mean, tell me how you joined the guild, the people in it, and stuffs.." he ooh'ed in understatement and nodded.

"Um, I joined it since I was ten, just few months before my parents' disappearance. My little sister Wendy joined it since she was..uh, 5, 6? I'm not sure. But my parents joined the guild many years before, I'm not even sure why they just told us that time." He shrugged, looking at her.

"Then?" he looked at her questioningly, "You really are one curious girl, aren't you? Like a hamster." She blinked, not even sure how hamster got into this.

"Well, few months later they disappear, then gramps reported it to the council, then blablabla.. Like I told you in the cave." She hummed in response and nodded. "How's the people there? Do you think they'll hate me or something? Kick me out just as my feet step inside, or choke me with –"

"Whoa hold up, Luce! I think you're over reacting it. Your fantasy is awesome, but no, they won't do that. Fairy Tail is the best place ever!" he brushed her fantasy off. She pouted, looking slightly uncomfortable.

"Who knows? I'm just afraid."

"Don't worry, they'll like you!" she smiled at his words. "Tell me about them." His eyes twinkled at that. she could tell that he really loved his guild.

"There's my bestest pal there, Happy! He's a blue talking cat –exceed, and he has wings, he can fly, and he's my best friend!"

"He's blue…?"

"Aye!"

"O-kay.. Who else?"

"Hm, let's see.. there's this stripping bastard, Gray, and the red haired demon Erza –" he stopped and looked at her, "Don't ever mess with her if you still wanna see the next sunlight." Lucy gulped and nodded sharply.

"My little sister Wendy, the little girl with long blue hair and face look like me and her white car Charle.. Oh, yeah, I think you'll like Levy, she's a short girl with blue light blue hair, she's a total bookworm." Lucy beamed and nodded, memorizing this girl Natsu talked about.

"Oh, and there's this piece of metal head, Gajeel. He's Levy's non-stop-overprotective-boyfriend-though-he-always-deny-it-so-does-her. you'll recognize him right away, just look at the scariest man –but I'm never afraid of him –and Juvia, his best friend and Gray's personal stalker. She could be scary and freaky sometimes." He shivered at the thought.

Lucy giggled, he looked so happy talking about them.

"Oh, Gajeel's dad is my dad's best friend too! His name is...Meltakina or something.. Metal head said he disappeared in the same day too! isn't it cool?" Natsu grinned.

She sweat dropped, "No, it's creepy actually." He ignored her comment.

"There's Cana, the top champion of drinking contest –she can drink ten barrels of beer without collapsing –and Laxus and his three cheerleaders, Freed, Evergreen and Bixlow." He went on and on about the people in the guild, she barely catching up to him.

"Oh, you should meet the Strauss siblings!"

This caught her attention. "Mira, the oldest, is a sweet girl outside, but she's a demon outside. And Elfman, the middle one, is the so called manliest guy in the guild." He blurted, snorting in the process.

"And the last is Lisanna Strauss, she's my friend since ages! She is a girl with short white hair and blue eyes –"

"Really? That's –"

"And she was the one who raised Happy with me, she's kind and stuffs, but she could be scary if she needed to." Lucy paused to think, feeling a bit hurt by his cut. She watched as his eyes twinkled as he talked about this Lisanna girl, and she was left silent.

Her amulet burned her skin slightly, and she slowed down to check it, and it was true, the fire inside the amulet blazed lightly, burning her skin the slightest bit, making her wince. Natsu's voice kept ringing n her head, making her own heart burn in dislike. More Lisanna this and Lisanna that bugged her and she felt like she want to choke him to shut up –

The singer gasped in shock. What did she just think about?

She shook her head, no way. There's no way she just thought about that.

She smiled assuringly at herself before looking up towards Natsu. "My, they really sound so nice, aren't they Na –"

Her eyes widened at no sight of the pink haired teen in sight. Her blood ran cold, gripping the amulet tightly. Her eyes wandering everywhere, right to left, no pink in sight. Crowd, full of people everywhere, but no Natsu.

No Natsu.

* * *

"And there's gramps! The master of Fairy Tail. He's this short ol' man with mustache and half bald head and he's super strong! He can beat master of Phantom Lord with this amazing spell! Like a BAM! Then every devil vanished into nothing and hell! You should meet him! Yeah, Fairy Tail is the best ever in the whole universe! Don't you think so, Luce?" he kept ragging and ragging about his guild, completely clueless that his blond haired companion was not beside him anymore.

Silence.

"Oh come on! Admit it, you'll love Fairy –"

Natsu Dragneel blinked. The spot beside him that was filled with the blonde, now replaced by a wrinkled old lady. He looked down towards the old woman and his face went blank.

"You…There's no way that you're Lucy….right?" he asked uncertainly. The old woman narrowed her eyes and looked at the man who apparently was talking to him.

"Jimmy, is that you? Where's my food?"

_Who the heck was Jimmy?_

"Oi, Jimmy! Where's my food? I'm hungry!" the woman pulled out a sword –umbrella –he wasn't sure himself and began hitting him like crazy, much to his surprise.

"Ow! Ow, Granny, I'm not –ow! Hey! Easy, you're gonna get hypertension like that –Ow!"

When the woman didn't stop, the poor pinkette groaned in frustration, "WHO THE HELL IS THIS JIMMY?!" still not stopping, Natsu growled and ran away before something terrible happen. Running to the other side of the street, he panted and leaned against the wall.

_Lucy._

He gasped and looked around, eyes rolling everywhere in search of the blonde. "Lucy! Luce!" he called, sniffing the air, but as he recalled it again, she changed her shampoo because she was afraid the armies might sue a scent radar or something on her.

Crap!

Magnolia was a big city, too big to be honest. Even Fairy Tail was a bit far away from here. Maybe reached a mile. Natsu looked towards his amulet, finding the fire got thinner and weaker. The problem was, what if it wasn't one of them who ran away from each other, but both of them did?

He needed to find her quickly.

* * *

Lucy's brown eyes scanned everywhere, feeling a bit awkward as people stared at her like a stranger. Where's Natsu? She had been walking everywhere for half an hour now, no sight of him. By still feeling free to suck the air, she knew that he wasn't far away. But damn, where was he?!

The street began crowding even more now, she accidentally bumped to people numerous times now, but still no sight of the man.

"Ow, sorry!" she apologized when she bumped another person, the other person smiled at her. "It's okay, I'm the one who should be sorry for not paying attention." Lucy smiled at the girl. She had light blue hair and orange bandana keeping her bangs in place. Her big eyes and cute smile made her look like a little girl.

"Are you new here? I haven't seen you around." She said, Lucy snapped out of her thought. "Uh, yes, I'm looking for someone actually."

"Is he from this city? Who is he? Maybe I can help you." She grinned and went down, picking the book on the ground that fell when they bumped to each other. The blonde singer saw a white mark on her back with pink line, a familiar insignia. She gasped.

"Are you from Fairy Tail?" the girl raised a brow before smiling widely. "Yes! My name's Levy McGarden." Lucy's excitement grew bigger. This girl was Levy!

"My name's Lucy Heartfilia." She shook hand with her and grinned. "Well, welcome to Magnolia. So, this person you're looking for, is she from out guild, too?"

The blonde smiled, "It's a he actually, yes he is. We were walking here together, but now I'm lost, and he's nowhere to be found." Levy's big eyes twinkled.

"Who is he?"

"Natsu Dragneel." She answered truthfully, finding that if this girl was from Fairy Tail, she could trust her.

"…" the blunette blinked rapidly. Lucy raised a brow. "Uh, hello?"

"You're Natsu's girlfriend?!"

"…WHAT? NO! I didn't say –"

"HOLY CRAP NATSU HAS A GIRLFRIEND! COME ON! I NEED TO TELL MIRA RIGHT AWAY!"

She wasn't sure what happened, but the next time, she was being dragged by the girl she just met a minute ago, down the street to Fairy Tail Guild. The amulet protested because of the distance and her lung squeezed slowly. She gasped and clutched her chest, Levy didn't pay any attention. Her eyes blurred and her throat unable to form a word.

All she heard was Levy's gasp and yell for her, as everything went black.

* * *

**DONE! xD**

**wohoo! Lucy's unconcious! *kicked* what will Natsu do now? who knows? maybe he'll come late and Lucy's left dead and - No.. I don't have the heart to write sumthing like that.. It'll be soo crueel.. TT^TT**

**oh, that song earlier is Taylor Swift's Everything has Changed ft. Ed Sheeran. I think it'll suit the story and the situation.. ;3**

**actually the 5th chapter is already on the way, maybe I'll update it in few days, monday or stuff.. xD **

**so pwetty pwease leave a review guys! Tons of hugs for ya all! ^^**

**-Nachii-**


	5. Chapter 5

**Oh Gooooosh! OAO I'm so sorry for not updating on Monday just like I said I maybe will.. TT^TT**

**I have two reason, first, as usual, lack of time coz of the tasks and homeworks. Second, I totally forgot that Monday already passed *kicked* lol xD sorry guys.. But, yeah. I managed to upload this one, today, two days away from the promised day xD**

**Thanks for all your reviews guys :D love single of them, and sorry for not replying, my homework is waiting and I barely have time.. :(**

**So, here you go Huckleberry chapter 5.**

**Hope you like iit~ xD**

* * *

Chapter 5

All eyes turned to Levy, accusingly, suspiciously.

"Who is she again?"

"Wendy, can you heal her?"

"I can give some stock of oxygen to her lung, but I still don't understand how this happen."

"So, our Natsu has a girlfriend?"

"My, she's gorgeous. Their babies must be cute."

"Mira-nee, it's not a right time to think about babies… But I'll be their Godmother."

"Lis, you're making it worse."

A groan stopped the group with their chats and they looked down towards the paled blonde. Lucy's eyes slid open slowly, seeing blurs of red, black, white(s), light blue, and darker blue.

"Oh my! She's awake!" she groaned and blinked, trying to clear her vision. When she finally got her eyes clear, she could see six people stared at her with curious yet friendly eyes. She tried to breath, but finding it hard and she clutched her chest tightly.

"Ssh, it's better if you don't move first, Lucy-san." Sweet voice said and the blonde opened her eyes again, seeing small girl with brown eyes and long dark blue hair looking at her with a smile, a very smile that reminded him of Natsu.

Natsu.

The singer's eyes widened and she coughed in alarm, her eyes shut tight. As her lung began o work normally again, she sucked up breath as much as she could, but slowly. When she was sure that the oxygen already filled her lung and body, dizziness dissipated, she jumped from the bed and looked around, still no Natsu. She looked at the people in worriedly.

"Where am I?"

The red head walked towards her, eyes softening at Lucy's worries and fear in her eyes. "It's okay, you're in Fairy Tail, Lucy, am I right?" she nodded and felt a bit relaxed hearing the guild's name. At least she was in his guild.

"How are you, Lu-chan?" her eyes darted to the familiar blunette, linking at the sudden nickname, shrugging it off, she answered, "Levy… I'm fine, what happened?" she smiled at the girl, her eyes still held confusion. Levy shook her head, "I don't know. I was about to bring you to Fairy Tail, then you fainted, then I brought you here."

The blonde pursed her lips. "Where's Natsu?"

"He hasn't come back. Are you his girlfriend?" she blushed at the red head's question. Two white heads behind her snickered and smirked. "N-no. I'm just… like… stuck wit-" she paused.

"Wait, I'm breathing." She stated. Everyone sent her a weird look. "Yes, you're breathing."

"How can I breath?" she asked. Levy laughed and sat beside her.

"Because you have lungs, and when oxygen inserted you nose, it will flow –"

"I know that! I learned biology before, I mean… Urgh, just where the heck is Natsu?" she groaned and pulled her knees close to her chest, burying her head in it. She was already getting used to be close with him, having him near her every time. The fact that he wasn't here a bit scared her.

"Lu-chan, it's okay. Do you really want to see Natsu?"

"I'm not just – ugh, it's complicated and –"

"LUCYYYYY!" the sound of the door being slammed open was heard and ruckus in the background, familiar voice shouted calling over her, worries and shaky voice here and there. Levy giggled, "Your prince is coming, maybe we should go see him." Blush crept up the singer's face. Levy took her hand and pulled her outside the infirmary. Her friends followed her.

"Did you see her? She's a blonde haired girl this height –brown eyes, big chest, beautiful face! Oh come on! DID YOU SEE HER?!" Lucy sweat dropped at the sight of the man strangling a poor guild member back and forth. Before she could say anything, the red haired girl from earlier stepped forward and the black haired man threw a chair towards him.

_BRAK_

"NATSU! STOP CAUSING RUCKUS IN THE GUILD!"

The rosette stopped and turned to the red head in fear, shivering and sweating. Lucy herself could feel the tension and caused her to shiver lightly. "E-Erza! I was just asking politely about –" his eyes found Lucy's and she smiled, waving at him. Happiness and relief bubbled in his chest.

"LUCEE!" he ran to her and encircled his hands around her, too tight for her own good. He pulled away and cupped her face in his hands, examining her from head to toe like an overprotective boyfriend. She scowled at him as he did the same.

"Where have you been?" he asked, clearly worried.

"Well, where have you been?" she asked back, pouting.

"I was walking but then you were replaced by an old lady that was looking for Jimmy!"

"Wha – who the heck is Jimmy?"

"Nevermind. Are you okay?"

Someone coughed, and they turned towards the smirking and squealing guild member staring at them in amusement. Realizing their position, they jerked back from each other and looked away, blush climbed up to their faces.

"Sorry for interrupting, but can someone tell me what's going on?" Natsu scratched the back of his neck and looked at Erza. "Um…" he shot Lucy a look and the singer huffed, the blush made her face supremely cute and he just wanted to hold her again.

"NATSUUU!" a screech was heard and they spun around as a blue fur ball launched himself at the man, Natsu grinned and hug him back. "Happy! How are you buddy?"

"I miss you! What took you so long? Charle's being mean to me!" Natsu was busy patting happy while Lucy couldn't help but smile.

After hugging Happy, the girl earlier went and hug him tightly, her long blue hair flapping. "Did something happen, Natsu-nii?" she asked, hugging him tight. Natsu hummed, "You bet. Something BIG happened."

The man received a smack behind his head and he glared at the black haired man earlier, now surprisingly half-naked with his shirt was nowhere to be found. "What was that for, Stripper?!"

"Your head is my punch bag, remember?" they glared at each other and was about to kick each other's butt when Erza stepped between them, glaring murderously.

"Welcome back Natsu, but no fighting. I still need an explanation." He sighed and stepped back to Lucy's side. "I don't know where should I start." He admitted, shoving his hands into his pocket.

A gasp. "She's pregnant, isn't she?!"

"KNOCK IT OFF GRAY!" Natsu glared at the black head who smirked at him. Lucy gawked and blushed madly.

"Really? Lu-chan you didn't tell me!" Levy came to her and held her hand in hers, eyes bulging to hers. The blonde sweat dropped. "No! I'm not –"

"NATSU! HOW DARE YOU GET A GIRL PREGNANT WITHOUT MARRYING HER?!" Erza pulled out a sword and glared at him, though her face burned without unknown reason.

"FOR GOD'S SAKE SHE'S NOT PREGNANT!" the man tried to prey all the accuse for them and pulled Levy and Erza away from the blonde who could only gaping at the scene. Thousands random questions directed to her and her eyes spinning.

"GIRLS! Leave the poor girl alone!" A scream echoed to the guild hall, causing everyone to go silent. Erza and levy straightened themselves and turned towards the long white haired beauty and her little sister. They cleared their throat and apologized to the girl.

"Sorry Lucy. That was so out of hand." Lucy nodded and smiled awkwardly. The older white head approached her. "Are you okay? Sorry, Erza and Levy could be so…wow when it comes to something like this." she explained sweetly. Lucy giggled and nodded.

"It's fine."

"You can call me Mira. You're Lucy Heartfilia, right?" she nodded, this woman was so sweet.

"Are you Natsu's girlfriend?" the girl beside Mira asked, giggling. The girl took out her hand, "I'm Lisanna Strauss." Her heart clenched at the name. She couldn't help but scooted closer to Natsu.

"I'm Lucy." she shook her hand and forced a smile. Lisanna grinned and went to Natsu. "Aw, our Natsu is a grown man.." he scoffed and ruffled her hair playfully. "Shut up Lis."

"Nice taste Natsu." He rolled his eyes, small blush stole up his cheek, unnoticed by Lucy.

"Anyway, can you tell me what happened now?" she asked again. Natsu sighed and nodded, tossing his bag to Wendy who caught it with a cute shriek. Zipping the sipper down, the blue haired girl's eyes widened at the things inside the bag.

"Whoa, you really stole these, Natsu-nii?" she asked as her eyes widened in amazement, sitting on the floor to examine the artifacts. Levy went to her side and helped her, her own eyes twinkled in amusement.

"Did you get caught?"

"I wouldn't be here if that happen." Levy giggled and motioned Lisanna to come over, they looked at the dragon artifacts and spread it on the floor.

"They're fifteen all." Levy counted, setting them into a line. Wendy nodded, staring at the artifacts one by one.

"Actually, there are 16 all…" everyone's eyes turned back to Natsu who squirmed on his spot, scratching his cheek. "Where's the last one?"

He exchanged glances with Lucy. The lady shrugged. Everyone grew curious. "Tell them Luce.."

"Why me? You caused it in the first place."

"At least help me out!" Lucy sighed and looked at the curious eyes. She shot him a blaming look before saying. "Well, apparently the last artifact is what bringing me here with this idiot."

They stayed silent. "You're… an artifact?"

"No! I mean.. um, here." She tucked her shit down a bit and pulled the amulet around her neck into view. Wendy gasped. "Huckleberry…" she whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Huckle-what?" Lisanna asked, brows furrowed.

"Huckleberry. That's the Dragon's Mate Amulets. If a girl and a boy wear it, they will stick to each other, until one of them die."

A chorus of 'Oooh' was heard. Lucy laughed weakly, "Yes, and well. We kinda, 'accidentally' put them on so… We're stuck to each other until we find a way to take them off." All eyes turned to Natsu.

"But how did you put it?" at that, both pair shot glare at each other. "Ask him/her!"

"Um.. Okay…" everyone nodded. Wendy walked to Lucy. "That's why you fainted and your lung didn't work before.." Natsu's eyes widened.

"You fainted?" Lucy smiled, "It's nothing serious."

"Nothing serious? We thought you were dead!" Levy pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest, before frowning. "I'm sorry I dragged you without knowing the situation, Lu-chan.." Lucy grinned and waved her hand.

"What happened next?" the rosette asked again, looking at the blonde worriedly, grabbing her hand, the whole began doubting their story about the Huckleberry and began thinking the other stuffs.

"Your lil sis healed her and stuff.." Gray answered, pointing to Wendy. Lucy's eyes widened and she bent down to thank her, smiling in appreciation. "Thanks Wendy, thanks a lot.." the girl blushed and nodded, smiling a bit.

"What now? How're you going to put those off?" Erza asked, raising a brow at their direction. They shook their head hopelessly. "We don't know.."

"Idiots.." Natsu's eyes twitched. "What did you say stripper?!"

"I'm stating the fact flame brain!"

"Well no one needs your opinion talking snowman!"

"No one asked for your comments fire spit!"

"Ice queen!"

"Candy head!"

"Popsicle!"

"Flame butt!"

"ENOUGH!" another booming sound boomed through the hall, causing everyone to go silent as a giant figure appeared from behind, Lucy squeaked and went behind Natsu. What was that?

The figure stepped into the hall, eyes burning red, body black like ghost. "Can't an old man try to sleep?" he asked in low voice, startling Lucy as she quivered. She shut her eyes tight as the figure walked towards them, wondering why everyone acted like it was a usual thing.

"Oh! Hi Gramps! I'm back!" Natsu grinned, waving at him. Lucy peeked an eyes open as the figure shrunk… Shrunk until a short old man with mustache appeared. She blinked in confusion. "Huh?"

"Welcome back brats! How's you mission!"

"Awesome! It was a piece of cake!" his grinned widened like it could rip his face. Lucy averted her eyes to the old man.

"Oh, Gramps! This is Lucy! Lucy, this is Gramps –ow! I mean, Master Makarov, he's the master of Fairy Tail!" Natsu introduced both of them, rubbing the spot Erza just hit. The blonde smiled politely to the short man, he was so short, maybe just above her knee, maybe higher. She wasn't sure. The mustache on his face made him look friendly instead of creepy, and his head was covered by a weird hat.

"Nice to meet you, sir." She said, smiling. Makarov eyed her for a moment, smiling and nodding. His eyes looked at her weirdly.

"You sure have grown, Lucy…"

Her eyes widened.

* * *

Natsu looked at them both in surprise. "You know her?"

"You know me?" he and Lucy asked in unison, surprise written all over her face. The master just smiled knowingly, tapping his chin. "Last time I saw you, was at the funeral." Her face saddened, the other's eyes widened. "Funeral? What funeral?" the petite blunette asked her new found friend.

"My mom's…" they frowned.

Levy's eyes widened and she covered her mouth with her hands, lowering her face. "I'm sorry Lu-chan.." she nodded and turned back to the short man, her curiosity grew larger by each second . "Are you my mom's friend?"

"Best friend, actually."

"But how come I didn't know? Was she a part of Fairy Tail?" she asked, feeling so confused and curious. Makarov smiled, "Exactly. But she rarely come here, she had a family, though." Lucy's mind spinning madly, confused, and mostly, sad. Why didn't her mother tell her?

"Whoa whoa.. Her mom was a part of the guild?" Natsu raised his hand in a time out, not catching up with the conversation. Everyone face palmed, the master twitched and took a deep breath before he sent him flying.

"Grandine didn't tell you?"

The Dragneel sibling shook their heads. What was going on here? It felt like an epic movie where a long lost pair met up again by fate. Natsu and Lucy looked at each other. Makarov sighed after few minutes of silence and thick intense made everyone go insane, "Can I see it, your mom's key?"

"How do you –" Lucy paused and sighed, mumbling something unheard before looking through her purse and gave the key to him. He looked at it closely before turning back to Natsu. "Are you sure you never met her?"

"Er, I don't know.." He grinned sheepishly, while Wendy sighed, "Lucy-san, what is your mother's name?" she asked softly, having an idea.

"Layla Heartfilia." Wendy's eyes brightened up. "That's it! Your mom's name is on the mug!"

"What mug?" Lucy narrowed her eyes, the little girl giggled, "My mom's favorite mug! There was a name on it, and I thought maybe it's someone special. Is that mean Mrs. Heartfilia is my mom's best friend, master?" the old man nodded.

"More than anyone else."

"Ooh.."

"Wait, your mom was a mage?!" a very shocked voice startled Lucy, the young woman turned towards the fire mage who was gaping, eyes widening, clutching his hair in confusion. "Uh, yes?"

"Why didn't you tell me?!"

"You didn't ask!"

He gasped and glared at her, "You are so telling me everything after this, miss!" he demanded, she tch-ed and brushed him off, directing her attention back to the master.

"My child, did you ever use the key?" Makarov asked, rubbing the golden key with his thumb. Lucy frowned sadly, "Never again, I got a letter from mom that said I'm not allowed to use magic –"

"You are a mage? You're a mage! THE HELL YOU'RE A MAGE!"

"SHUT UP NATSU!" she hit the back of his head but he kept standing there, dumfounded. Everyone looked at him weirdly. Was that really shocking to him? He really looked like a guy who just founf out about his alien mother or something and it annoyed them.

Lucy cleared her throat, "Sir, that day on July 7, was my mother's death and Natsu's parents' disappearance related to each other?" the mustache man didn't say anything at first, closing his eyes. The time went so slowly, their eyes watched as Makarov took a breath, slowly, from his nose –mustache –and breathed out even much slower. Lucy began sweating while Natsu kept blanking.

Finally, he crooked his mouth open. "I can't tell you now. I'm not the right person to tell you." He said and opening his eyes. "What I can tell you now is, those amulets could be danger." They looked down towards their amulet and gripped it tightly.

That sentence seemed to wake the rosette up. He looked at the master of the guild and sent him a lost look. "Oi Gramps, what do you mean?" he sighed.

"Didn't you hear? Lucy's lungs weren't working normally before, because of a simple reason. You weren't beside her." the words stabbed him right in his heart. Natsu looked at her and frowned, absent-mindedly walking closer to her.

"It can cause you both to die without you knowing it. We need to put those off quickly."

"Master's right, Natsu. I was so afraid Lu-chan might die before." Levy murmured, tapping her fingers together. "If Wendy wasn't there, I don't know what would happen." Lisanna added, nodding in agreement. The pink haired man hung his head and thought about it.

They were right. He couldn't bear thinking what would happen if something bad happen to Lucy. he wouldn't just feel guilty, he would be sad, he would break. He knew it.

Natsu felt a squeeze on his hand and looked at the blonde who was holding his hand. She gave him a soft smile, "I'll be fine, Natsu.." he sighed and nodded, he knew she should be able to take care of herself. But Levy and Lisanna were right too. He couldn't risk anything bad happen to the blonde he got so overprotective of.

"So, how can we take these off without cutting our head?" Master was silent for a few moments before turning to Mira beside him.

"Mira, call the council. I need to talk with Yajima." The white haired beauty nodded. "Yes Master." He turned towards the pair once more.

"I'll talk to Yajima first, maybe he could help and for you two," he pointed at them. "Just take a rest for now, and Lucy.." he gave her the key and placed it on her palm with a grin. "I think the 'help' is already here." Her eyes widened as she took the key from him.

"You can use your magic now." She gasped and a huge grin spread over her pretty face, she gave him a nod, before her grin replaced with a frown. "But I can't just use magic without just one key. Do you…possibly know where the rest are?" she asked hopefully.

The master breathed out and looked at her straight in the eye. Everyone held their breath.

"Layla gave it to them."

Natsu raised a brow. "Who?"

The blonde's eyes widened in understatement. "You mean –"

"Your keys are in Mr. and Mrs. Dragneel's hand." Lucy's face went blank for a moment.

"But they're currently missing… How on earth can I use my magic without my keys?"

The old man snickered and raised his palm, chanting something. Suddenly, something black appeared on his open palm. The blonde raised her brows at the thing. "A wristband?"

"Put it on." He commanded, Natsu watched as Lucy hesitantly put the wristband on, examining it from different angle, but nothing changed. "Put some magic in it, duh." She blinked before laughing weakly.

"Right, silly me." She muttered before flowed some magic into the wristband, and suddenly, a set of keys appeared on her palm, the lady gasped in surprise. "My keys!"

Master nodded, "It's still a hologram keys, but you can use it for temporarily for now until we solve this mystery and find Natsu's parents. Though their power is not as strong as the real keys." He explained, but Lucy paid no attention, she was busy looking at the set of keys on her palm, even thought they were that hologram thingies, she grinned as she felt they were real, solid, jingling and shining, her eyes were admiring their symbol one by one before grinning once more.

"It's more than enough, thank you!" she bowed, smiling brightly. "Thank you very much master! How can I repay you?"

"Hmm…" the mustache man closed his eyes deep in thought. "Repay me? I don't know, do you have any idea Natsu?" The said young man's eyes sparkled and he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.

"I know! I know! Join Fairy Tail, Luce!" he pleaded, looking at her from her shoulder with puppy eyes, she blushed at the contact but didn't push him away, she liked his warmth.

"Yes yes! You should join Fairy Tail, Lucy-san!" Wendy cheered, clapping and staring at her with cute innocent eyes, so inviting.

"Yes Lu-chan! You really should join!"

"It'll be fun Lucy!" Lisanna grabbed her hand and blinked cutely, pleadingly.

"Yes, we already like you, Lucy." Mira said, "Just say yes, it'll be great, Lucy." Erza added, Gray smirked behind her.

"Even though you're weird, but we like you!" Happy purred happily. Soon, every pair of eyes in the guild looked at her pleadingly, asking her to join the guild. The woman of the topic blushed and bit her lip, excitement and happiness filled her chest.

"Please? We're stuck to each other, right?" Natsu said again against her hair, looking at her with his stunning onyx eyes. Lucy held her breath before grinning. "Okay."

"YAAAAAAAAY!" everyone cheered, Mira grabbing the tools and gave her the insignia as she requested, pink on her hand. Lucy admired it as she brought her hand up, the insignia gleamed with light.

"It's called for a party!" master yelled, the whole guild cheered with her, happiness clearly written on her face. And for the first time in her life, maybe, just maybe, she could really experience happiness once more.

* * *

Wendy was busy spreading the mattress on the carpet in the Dragneels living room before running back and forth from the bedrooms to the living room to get all the pillows they needed.

"You get so excited, Wendy." Her white furred exceed looked at her, two pillows on her paws and she flew following the girl. The blunette giggled.

"I'm just happy Natsu-nii told Lucy-san to stay here." She answered truthfully.

Natsu had insisted the blonde to just stay at his house for some reasons. First, it would save her money. Second, Wendy seemed to like her and third. "We're stuck to each other, remember?" Wendy Dragneel found it very cute that her big brother seemed so overprotective and loving towards the celestial mage.

"Then why are we sleeping in the living room?" Charle asked again, putting the pillow on the wide mattress and went back to grab the blankets.

"I haven't clean the guest room because we just got back from the mission, remember? Lucy-san said a sleepover in the living room would be great. So, here we are." Charle smiled at the happy girl.

"You really like her, huh?" another voice joined and they turned to see Happy bringing the blankets and put it under. The little girl grinning brightly, nodding.

"Well, she's nice and all." The white cat commented, tapping her chin with her paw. "I guess she's likeable too. everyone in the guild already liking her." She added.

"Natsu llllliiiikes her too!"

"Quit it Happy." Someone warned. Wendy's eyes twinkled as Natsu walked into the room, a towel around his shoulder.

"It's true, isn't it?" they laughed as his face held small tint of pink on it, his hair dried instantly. He made no respond as his feet dragged him to the fireplace, lighting the fire and made the room warm automatically. Wendy mouthed small 'Thanks' at him before making herself comfortable on the mattress, hugging the pillow.

"Where's Lucy-san?"

"In the shower…uh, since twenty minutes ago. Maybe she'll come out in few minutes." The little Dragneel grinned widely. "How can you be so sure?"

Natsu, oblivious with his little sister's grin that matched Mira's, shrugged nonchalantly. "She took a long time in a shower before, for about twenty minutes, what'll make this different?"

"Hooo… So you basically waited for her when she was in the shower?"

Another clueless shrug. "Yes of cou –wait. You're asking this on purpose!" he glared at her, pointing an accusing finger at her. Wendy laughed and shielded herself with Charle who chuckled in the background.

"You lllllllliiike her!"

"Happy! Not you too!" he yelled at the exceed, pouting. "It's not like I waited for her on purpose. Luce's just –"

"What about me?" his ears perked up at the said woman's voice and he turned to find Lucy, in a T-shirt and short, hair still wet, staring at them curiously. He gulped and shook his head a bit too quickly.

"Nothing." She quirked an eyebrow. "Really? What about my name's being called?"

He sighed and snatched her towel from her hand. "Whatever. I'm gonna put these in the laundry."

"Hey! I'm not done with my hair!" she protested. Natsu looked at her for a moment before running his fingers through her hand, the damp locks dried instantly, automatically causing her eyes to widen.

"Whoa, how did you do that?" he smirked at her awes and showed his fingers which were drying her hair with heat. Her face brightened in amazement. "Cool."

He chuckled and swung the towels to his shoulder before facing her, putting his palms on both sides on top of her head, sliding his hands down until the end of her hair, drying them completely. Lucy hummed and closed her eyes, liking the warmth spreading from the hands.

"You're like a walking dryer or something, Natsu."

"No, I'm just hot."

"Oh shut up." She snorted, giggling at his expression. When his hands slid up again to her hair and stopped on her cheeks, her fit of giggles stopped to a smile, staring at him in amusement, the man stared back with same face.

They just stared at each other for some periods before a jingle was heard.

"Natsu and Llllucy sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-S-S-S-S –"

"Why is her name is the only one getting the tongue roll?!"

"Wha – That's not the problem! Shut it Happy!"

"That's the tru –Future truth!" the blue fur ball defended himself.

"GO TO SLEEP!"

"A-Aye… Mom."

A death glare.

"A-Aye!"

* * *

**Fyuuh, it's done. The next one, I'm still daydreaming about it. So I can't say when will I upload it, I was busy with my homeworks from the creepy teachers and the work from my science club TT^TT not to mention there's an upcoming scientific literature competitions in my bestie's high school and I was planning to join it.. **

**So, maybe I'll be a bit late.. ._.**

**But I'll manage it, somehow ;3**

**so pwetty pwease leave a review minna, that'll support me! Thankies ^^**

**-Nachii-**


	6. Chapter 6

**Um... Hi! xD *try to put on some innocent smiles***

**okay, I think I really need to apologize of not updating for...a month? I'm not sure, and I don't really remember. Gosh, SORRY! I was so busy, with school and my senior kept bugging me and my 'siblings' about stuffs in our science club and all, and WB attacked my with full force, uwaaaa I'M JUST SO SORRY!**

**I'm glad with everyone that kept reviewing, that just make me so happy! and I'm just freaking sorry for not replying the reviews, once again, I was busy and no time just created another reason and bla bla bla TT^TT**

**but, still, here I am, posting Huckleberry's new chappie *eventhough I'm so sleepy* :3 and I hope you guys will love iit! ^^**

**so here you go, hope you like itt~**

* * *

Chapter 6

Lucy threw glances to the blue haired girl beside her on the barstool. "What's up with your brother?" a rose up brow make the little girl smiled. "He's been like that since morning."

The blonde sighed as she watched the fire mage sat beside her, arm crossing, a pout on his face. His face was cute, but the uneasy look on his face gave a tint of worry to her heart. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she smiled softly when he turned, his frowning face relaxed a bit considering that she was here.

"What's wrong with you?"

He scoffed, "I'm fine."

A roll of eye caused him to go silent, "That doesn't look like it, come on, tell me." Natsu breathed out air through his throat lazily, shifting his chair a bit closer to her as he buried his nose to his scaly scarf.

"I'm…hungry."

"Natsu Dragneel, I know you well enough to know how you'll act when you're hungry."

"What exactly do I do when I'm hungry?"

"You eat like a pig that almost died of hunger…and thirst."

"Hey –"

"That's the truth. Now tell me." He went silent again at her straight face. Fidgeting uncomfortably, he straightened his scarf around his neck and loosened the amulet a bit, scratching his neck. When she shot him another that Mrs. Know It All look, he sighed and answered. "I don't wanna be here.."

"Yet you were whining to go home two days ago." She commented, boringly, demanding another sentence leave his mouth. He looked a bit offended, but then again, it looked fake, she wasn't sure.

"I wasn't whining." Another sigh leaved his throat. "I just… don't wanna be here for now."

"But this is Fairy Tail. Your home. Why don't you wanna be here?"

He spun his chair back to the stool, gulping down his drink, before hopped off the chair, leaving Mira, Lisanna and Lucy blinked.

"That council guy will come today.." Lucy didn't catch where this was going, so she urged further, "Yeah, so?"

"You know, me and council? I don't pay attention to those who won't pay attention to my parents."

A soft smile appeared on her pink lips. So, he was uncomfortable with the fact that Yajima-san would come today, huh? She herself never met any council people before, she only heard of them from her father, or the mayor before, but never really meeting them. If it wasn't necessary she wouldn't want to do anything with them too, though. But this was for their parents' mystery. This was for the Dragneels, for him and Wendy.

Hopping off from her own chair, the mage-singer stood beside him. "Never thought that the almighty Natsu Dragneel would be scared of a council guy~"

Blinking, the rosette's lips curled into a grin at what she said, "I'm not scared!"

"Sure, that's what they always say."

He laughed, and launched himself to grab her and teach her some manner when another laugh bubbled out from her throat and ran away from his reach.

In the bar stool, Mira and Lisanna smiled at the pair, watching as they laughed, chasing each other before Natsu won, holding her close by the waist and tickled her side, smiling at each other.

"Our Natsu really has grown up.." the younger white head said, sniffling playfully. Her sister just giggled, "He's just… never been this happy, right Wendy?" the little girl on the chair in front of them had her eyes sparkling brightly, a nod directed to them.

* * *

"Bubabubababobuabuoboubeaboo…"

"GOD! PAY ATTENTION YA PIECE OF GOOD FOR NOTHING BRAT!

Natsu covered his ears with his palms and stopped his chanting, looking at the Guild Master in front of him with a glare. "Aye aye. No need to shout, Gramps."

Makarov's eyes twitched as he felt the urge to smack the young man across the room. "I don't find any reason why I should be here.." he mumbled silently, crossing his arms, not once glancing at the other short old man beside the Master. He was about to say another word when a hand placed on his right one, warm, soothing him a bit.

"You must have a great patience to take care of him, don't you Makarov?" Natsu tried so hard not to say anything back from the old man's words. Makarov rolled his eyes and sighed, "You bet, Yajima. He got on my nerves most times."

"I'm still here if you haven't noticed." He muttered more, his urge to go away from this room increased by seconds.

"Natsu…" another sighed leaved his lips at the pretty blonde's voice beside him, "Fine."

Lucy turned towards the old men in front of them. "We're sorry Yajima-san. He's just…moody." Yajima's lips curled into a smile at the polite young lady.

An intense silence accompanied them later on, neither Natsu or Lucy dared to make any noise. They –Lucy kept silent as she waited for the men to speak, anything, while the rosette just not making any voice, the uneasy frown kept adorning his handsome face.

"So –" Master said.

"At last." The murmur from the fire mage caused another twitch to form on his wrinkled forehead, but he took a deep breath and calmed down after a minute when Natsu didn't say another word.

"So this is the mysterious Salamander that I kept hearing about?" the master's old friend said, smiling in total amusement.

A scoff.

"I was a bit shocked to find out that this Dragon Thief is a young man. I was expecting an older man or so."

"Sorry to disappoint you, Sir." He replied back with a mocking tone. The twitch on the Guild master's forehead grew bigger, Lucy face palmed as Yajima just kept smiling in amusement. "No no. You didn't disappoint me. In fact, I think stealing those Dragon Artifacts that got many tight securities was very impressive. And brave." He added the last part.

Natsu eyed the man –finally! –suspiciously. "Okay, so what are you going to do with it now? Arrest me?"

"No, I'm just curious –"

"I'm not answering anything –"

"Why did you steal them?"

The rosette paused and blinked, quiet surprised to hear the question leaved his throat. "I thought a council guy not supposed to care?" he wondered out loud, causing the blonde haired mage-singer to laugh nervously at the council man.

"Well then, I'm a different case of the 'Council Guy' you were talking about." He said, emphasizing the words.

"Yes, you're older… and shorter. I guess you're a bit weird, like Lu –"

_SMACK_

"I dare you t finish that, Mr. Dragneel." The blonde hissed at him. Natsu sent her a whine while rubbing his sore head. The men in front of them stared at the pair with small smirk. They could see that there was something between them. Something good. Throwing glances at each other, both men cleared their throat, causing the pair to silent and diverted their eyes back to them.

"So, my question earlier?"

The pink haired Dragneel looked at his companion for a while and sighed when she smiled, nodding. "I'm just taking what's ours."

"Ours as in…"

"My family." He stated firmly, fire burned in his stunning onyx eyes. The old council man was silent for a while before replying back, "Natsu Dragneel. You know that the Dragon Artifacts don't belong to the Dragneels anymore, right?" The said young man scowled.

"And you're expecting me to believe that?"

"No. I believe that you could stop thinking that they're yours."

Natsu's brows furrowed dangerously, "I don't think that they're ours. I know they are."

Air leaved Yajima's throat as he stood up, joining his hands behind his back and looked at the man straight in the eye. "There's a contract that proves who the owner of the artifacts. And it clearly written that they belonged to Oracion Seis."

"Well screw that contract. A piece of paper won't –"

"And it signed by your parents."

* * *

His eyes widened, staring at the old man in front of him in disbelief.

"What?" his voice could be considered as whispers that Lucy almost didn't catch. Clear disbelief and surprise could be heard.

"That's the truth." The short man said again, numbing the young man with each word he said.

"No, that couldn't be right." he defended. There's no way! His parents loved the artifacts too much to hand them away from their family's hands. "They found the artifacts!"

"Then gave it to anyone else."

"No!"

"Natsu!"

"Then can you explain their disappearance? CAN YOU?!"

Another silence enveloped them as Yajima stood there, stunned at the question, finding that he himself couldn't answer. Natsu's eyes kept glaring at him, demanding any answer, the truth that he longed to hear. When he didn't make another sound for the next minutes, Natsu stood up and nodded.

"Exactly. Now if you excuse us, and excuse my reason to take back what's ours. Thanks for coming, Sir."

Grabbing the blonde's hand firmly but gently he stepped out from the office, when Yajima voiced again.

"Without any prove your action considered as a criminal action, Mr. Dragneel!" kept walking Natsu, just don't pay any attention to that man's bluffs.

"And give us reason to arrest you." He rolled his eyes, like hell he would be scared of that threat.

"Or arrest Ms. Heartfilia, with force." That triggered the fire inside him as he let go of her wrist and spun back around, standing in front of the man in split second, glaring murderously. A gasp escaped the blonde's throat as his expression turned dark.

"Touch her and I swear I'll rip you and your soldiers to pieces."

Yajima made no move at his death threat. "You got my word."

With that, grabbing Lucy's hand again, he dragged the still stunned blonde out from the Master's room.

When they were out of sight, the council member turned towards his friend and smiled, "He was a very interesting young man, reminding me of his father. Very strong and brave too. I mean, it's not everyyday you see someone dared to speak up to me like that."

Makarov smiled back and chuckled, "Let's just hope with Lucy by his side, everything will go smoothly."

* * *

'_Touch her and I swear I'll rip you and your soldiers to pieces.'_

'_Touch her.'_

'_Her.'_

Blinking hard, Lucy snapped out of her trance of thought and instantly her eyes darted to her and Natsu's joining hand and blushed constantly.

_Damn it! Why did that sentence sound so protective?! More importantly, why did he has to sound so protective?!_

When she accidentally stumbled down a staircase and woke her up again from her train of thought, she squeaked and caused the man to stopped and caught her in time. She bumped against his warm chest in the end of the intersection. Looking up, she met a pair of worried onyx eyes stared at hers.

"Sorry.." he whispered, his hands squeezed her upper arms a bit, the temperature around them increased a bit along with his discomfort. Another angry and sad frown mixed into one appeared on his face.

He looked back at her when a soft delicate hand placed on his left cheek, the other one brushing his bangs away from his eyes. "Hey hey, look at me." She told and he obliged, staring into her brown orbs that shined with determination.

"Everything will be fine. I'm pretty sure Master will take care of everything and it'll be fine. Trust me." He groaned. "I know Gramps will take care of everything. It's just… I don't like that guy, and he spoke badly about everything and I just..can't trust him."

She smiled softly at him. "You just have to give faith in your parents, and do what you think is right."

"…I know." He whispered, closing his eyes. he just couldn't shake his mind off what Yajima-san said earlier. He was right, he could just arrest him with force.

Or Lucy.

The thought made his chest burned even more.

"But thank you Natsu." Opening his eyes a bit too quickly at Lucy's voice, his eyes met her beautiful smile and small blush on her cheek. "That was so brave, and cool." She mumbled shyly, smiling at him as his own face stretched into a small grin.

Wrapping his arms around her tightly, he buried his nose to her hair and hummed in response. His face relaxed when her sweet scent entered his nostrils.

"I'm not gonna let anyone take you away. I promise."

She smiled and snuggled deeper to his chest, "I know."

* * *

"I told you not to come with me, Natsu." The man beside her gave her a grin that always work on making her heart skip a beat. "I'm curious about your spirit." She sent him a look.

"They're not my spirit, they're my friend, duh."

'_They're my friends, Natsu-kun.'_

Natsu shook his head at the sudden memory and grinned at her, "I remembered your mom said the same." The blonde's face turned into a soft smile, her mother's face came into her mind.

"Mm, she was the one that taught me how to love the spirits." She paused for a split second before adding, "That's why I'm here to apologize to them now, and to greet old friends." pumping her fist in the air, she wore that determined face of hers and grinned at him.

When they made it to the park, the quite environment just make everything seemed so mysterious and stuff, and an uneasy feeling started to creep up her mind. What if they didn't want to see her anymore? What if they forgot about her? and more importantly, what if they hated her? those questions swirled in her mind and she started to consider about forget everything else, start a new life as a new singer and forget about magic.

That, until a familiar warm hand clasped on her own, soothing her down just a bit before she turned to face her companion.

"Stop making weird faces, it makes you look weirder."

She should be annoyed at his mocking tone, but instead she smiled and gave his hands a small squeeze. "You're right."

Taking a deep breath she pulled out her set of solid hologram keys and looked at them one by one, rubbing their symbols with her fingertips. _Okay Lucy, this is it._ She told herself. She mentally told herself to calm down, not to feel nervous, or any emotion and mental problem. This was just a friendly occasion, to call the spirits, whom you didn't see since ten years ago.

Yeah, ten years ago.

That was a pretty long time.

Okay, a very long time.

She groaned and got to crouching position, covering her face with her palms and cursed mentally.

"Damn it."

Natsu looked at her weirdly before following her position and crouched beside her, "Luce, you okay?"

"I'm not." She answered quickly, "I'm scared. What if they hate me?" a chuckled leaved his throat.

"Lucy, nobody able to hate you." She opened her hands and stared at him questioningly, "How do you know? We've only known each other for a week."

There, came that grin again, her chest fluttered as he brought his hand to pat her head and said, "It feels more than just a week." A blush stole up her cheek and she looked away. "Come on Luce, I'm so curious in our friends!"

Another sigh leaved her lips and she stood up, taking a key from the ring and looked at the symbol. Natsu's face brightened up and he stood up also, backing away a few steps to give her some space. The blonde looked at him and the key back and forth before taking a deep breath.

"Who're you calling first?" the question sounded so curious, yet excitedly, and Lucy couldn't help but smile.

"The most protective one."

Natsu raised a brow but didn't ask anymore further. Watching her taking another gulp of air, she chanted.

"Gate of The Lion. I open thee. Loki!"

Natsu squinted his eyes as a bright light appeared, almost blinding, and surge of magic power engulfed her as something –someone appeared from the light. His eyes widened when he found out that that was a guy, orange spiky hair, glasses, a formal suit –what? What kind of guy wearing a formal suit these days?

The man blinked few times, seemed surprise-lost-confused-concern-and stuff.

"What the –"

A gasp leaved the orangenette's throat when his eyes focused on someone in front of him, Lucy looked at him nervously. Fidgeting on her spot, she smiled nervously at him and tapped her fingers together. The man was still gaping, rubbing his eyes few times to see that this wasn't a sick joke. This was a crazy joke. Okay, not a joke, but a crazy reality.

"Lucy?"

"Um.. Hi, Loki…" she mumbled, smiling. She looked like she was about to run, from something. Natsu wasn't sure.

"Lucy? Is that really you?" she snorted at the question. "Of course it's me! What else do you think?"

"Oh I know, Aries kicked me too hard for peeping her in the bathroom before."

Lucy blinked, "You did what?"

"I must be dreaming. What else will appear now? A muscular Plue?"

_What on earth was he talking about?_

"Loki! It's really me!" she yelled, pouting, blushing, a cute combination and Loki stared at her still with that innocent smile, before his eyes widening more.

"It's really you, Lucy?"

"YES!"

…

Silence

…

"Damn it Loki! Say something!"

He chuckled for a few moment, covering his forehead with a palm. She thought he was going mad.

"LUCYYY! IT'S REALLY YOU!" her eyes widened as he launched himself at her, hugging her tightly, too tight for her own good. She swore she heard a very angry gasp from behind but she shrugged it off, too stunned by the sudden embrace by the Lion spirit.

"Loki…" she whispered, but he ignored her, kept hugging the lady. "Gosh, it's really you.." she smiled at the words and hugged him back. A growl in the background didn't seemed to affect anything as the two friends kept hugging each other.

They pulled away few moments later, Lucy smiled at him in concern. "Are you mad at me for, you know, I didn't contact you for ten years or so." He smirked, "Of course not. We were just so worried that you didn't call us for such a long time. Even Aquarius was worried, and mad."

She paled at that, "Um, okay. Tell her I miss her too, ahaha…"

"No problem, you can call her later."

"O-Okay. Wish me luck, and alive." Loki chuckled and nodded. When he stopped the chuckles, he couldn't help but admired her from head to toe. "You've grown into a very beautiful lady, Lucy."

She giggled, "Oh, not this anymore, please." He smirked and took her hand in his. "A beautiful lady, indeed. Gosh, you really brightened up my whole day!" he pulled her closer as she rolled her eyes. He really didn't change, even after these whole years and his flirting mode never subside.

"Do you remember that we used to play husband and wife and I used to be your knight in shining armor. Let's take this reunion as an opportunity!"

"Huh?" she crocked a brow. "What are you babbling about?" she blinked when he pulled her even closer and whispered. "Let's get married for rea—"

"Okay that's it!"

The Lion's speech got cut by something pulled them apart, a pair of warm muscular arms wrapped around her waist and the other one placed on Loki's forehead, pushing him few feet away.

" . , Kitty."

_KITTY?!_

Loki dusted his suit and looked at the stranger with confused eyes. "Who are you, Pinky? And who're you calling kitty?!"

"Names Natsu Dragneel. And is there anyone else should be called kitty beside you, kitty?" the twitch on the orange head's forehead disappeared upon hearing the surname.

"Dragneel?" he repeated, looking at the lady and the man back and forth. "Dragneel? Lucy, what is going on here?"

"You know the Dragneels?" Lucy freed herself from the rosette's grasp and looked at her friend with wide eyes. Loki rolled his eyes, "Of course, they're your parents' best friends."

"Oh, yeah. I forget that." she laughed awkwardly and scratched her cheek softly, "Then, meet Natsu Dragneel. He's Mr. and Mrs. Dragneel's son. Natsu, Loki. Loki, Natsu."

They looked at each other daringly, both wearing a glare and a protective look on their faces. They got out their hands in the exact time together,

"Nice to meet you, Young Mr. Dragneel."

"Nice to meet you too, I guess." They shook hands, with some force, unknown to Lucy. Sending each other same looks.

'_Sorry to disappoint you, Kitty. I'm not handing Lucy away.'_

'_No need to, Mr. Dragneel. I'll take her by myself.'_

A thick tension enveloped both men as Lucy looked at them confusedly. "Uh, Natsu? Loki?" they ended their 'friendly' handshake with a forceful tug and a final glare, before turning back to Lucy.

"Yes?" they said in unison. The girl was taken aback by them. "O-okay."

"So, can you tell me what's going on here? How'd you meet a Dragneel, and everything happened here?"

The blonde bit her lip and looked down at the ground for while before darting her eyes back to the man. How should she tell him? Look Loki! I got an amulet around my neck and that means I'm stuck with Natsu all the time!

No way.

"Did he get you pregnant?"

She looked at him with wide eyes, mouth gaping, "What the –NO!"

"Then, I'm waiting."

She sighed and answered, "Okay, I'll tell you.."

Lucy Heartfilia didn't quite understand how her lips moved and told the spirit everything that happened these past days, how she never saw her keys anymore since her mother's funeral, how she quitted her life being a Heartfiia as her father died and how she became a singer. How she never involved herself into magic since.

How she met Natsu.

And eventually ended up as his friend and stuck-to-each-other-friend.

How she joined Fairy Tail and they needed to find a way to find Natsu's parents and her real keys instead of those solid hologram keys.

And Loki just kept nodding, few times looked surprise, but provided the attention Lucy needed the most right now.

"I…I'm so sorry and I never meant not to call you guys or what, but… I really, really didn't know what to do so I distanced myself from magic ever since, before all this –" she waved her hand everywhere, " –happened. It was just, I felt so lost, and confused and scared. I'm sorry Loki."

The orange head didn't say anything but a small smile lingered on his lips before he sighed, "It's fine, I understand now. and considering why I'm feeling less magic from you, I guess it's because the hologram keys thingy, right?"

A nod from Lucy convinced him and he grinned. "At least you're save, and don't you dare thinking that we're not your spirits anymore, young lady!" he stated jokingly but a tone of truth was there. Lucy smiled at him. "You guys never became my spirits from the start."

The man looked at her confusedly.

"You guys are my friends." the sentence caused another smile formed on his face and he nodded in understatement. "Your personality never changed, Lucy." he commented, crossing his arms over his chest. The blonde giggled before she remembered something and her face turned serious.

"So, what happened that day? I'm sure you know something, right Loki?"

Natsu shot up from his bored mode and stood beside the pretty blonde, eyeing the man suspiciously, "Yeah! Considering you know her mother very well, we'll take that you know something, don't you, Poki?"

"It's LOKI!" he yelled, annoyed by the man changing his name randomly, before taking a deep breath and shook his head. "As much as I want to help you, Princess, but I don't know anything. All I remember was your mom closed our gates forcefully and I can't sense her magic anymore ever since, neither yours."

Lucy frowned, "Just that? Nothing else?"

"Sorry, Princess."

"You're not hiding something, right?" Loki sucked a deep breath to calm himself from the fire mage's comment. If only he wasn't Lucy's friend, he would already bury that pinkette in the ground for good.

The blonde wasn't saying anything, but the disappointed look in her eyes made him feel bad as he kept apologizing. She smiled softly at him. "It's fine, at least I can meet you guys again, and I guess. It's time for me to call the others." She told him, twirling the keys between her delicate fingers. The Lion sighed and nodded.

"Yes, I guess you right. Lovely to see you again Lucy." he grinned at her before she closed the gates, waving at him.

When he disappeared with a puff, she sighed and looked at the set of keys to see whom she should call next. Today, she would settle everything with her spi –friends, she needed to tell them everything.

A sound of someone whistling brought her back to reality and she turned to her side, raising a brow at the man. "What?"

"That went well." He mumbled, shrugging his shoulders. "It went well with Loki, I don't know with the rest."

Natsu snorted and rolled his eyes, "You said his name like it was a King's name or something."

…

"What?" he looked at her as she didn't say anything, looking at him amusedly, confusedly. When a laugh bubbled from her throat he thought the magic did some effect on her.

"Hey, he was just a friend, a good friend that I usually relied on when I was little." She smiled at him, planting her hands on her hips. The memory of him and the spirit glaring at each other repeated again in her mind.

"Still… He likes you. I mean, likelike you."

"Oh please Natsu. He acted like that towards every girl."

"He acted differently with you!" he protested, kept arguing with her and the slightest thought of Loki flirting with Lucy just burned his stomach uncomfortably and he even couldn't be sure why. She just made him feel weird.

The smile on her face grew wider as blush stole up her cheek, and the man couldn't help but notice how cute it was. Lucy's brown eyes twinkled and her chest warmed up at the thought that maybe, just maybe, he was feeling the feeling she thought he was feeling right now.

And even though that feeling sent her mind and heart goose bumps, she just couldn't help but feel…happy.

Gosh, this man was really something.

And she grinned at him, "Never thought a mighty Salamander would be jealous over a Lion."

"I'm not jealous!" he denied, small blush coated his face and his neck heated up, but be the cold. Damn Autumn.

"Oh, I forget to tell Loki something –"

"Hey! You're not calling him again!"

She rolled her eyes, "I can do whatever I want, Mr. I'm-not-jealous-over-a-Lion." He looked at her with wide eyes, disbelievingly. When she waved it off, telling it was a joke, the rosette shook his head over the thought that probably, he Was jealous.

Face palming, he closed his eyes tightly to clear out his mind.

Lucy Heartfilia was the first girl that able to make him feel this…screwed. And he decided that this was her entire fault. Or maybe it was these Huckleberries' fault.

Yeah, it was the Huckleberry, right?

Right?

* * *

**Done! xD I just finished it few mins before I updated it. Though, actually I was about to update it few hours sooner, I was lazy and my lappy ran out of batteries, so yeah *excuses excuses* xD no, that's the truth.**

**gosh, my school is trying to kill me, all those tests, those homeworks, everything was a mess! Just wish me luck here so I can think of nex chapter's idea sooner and update faster, kay? xD**

**Hope you guys like this chapter! although it's not too fluffy, so I decided to make the next less tension-ish and fluffier! xD**

**so pwetty pwease leave a review minna! I'll love it! ^^**

**tons of hugs!**

**-Nachii-**


	7. Chapter 7

**Dumdumdum...**

**Okay, I guess I'll apologize again today for the late update, muu I'm so slow, aren't I? OAO**

**Well, actually I'm in the middle of a mid-term exam right now but here I am updating my Huckleberry. Ckck.. I must be crazy but I just don't wanna make you guys wait again, Ha! I can be good person for a while rite xD**

**Okay, I shouldn't waste ur time so, here you go Huckleberry chapter 7!**

**Hope you like iit! xD**

* * *

Chapter 7

Yesterday was a very long day for Lucy. Summoning and apologizing to all her spi –friends wasted too much magic power and when she went back to the Dragneel's house, without eating dinner or even took a bath like she normally do after a long day, she collapsed onto the bed in the guest room that Wendy already prepared for her.

The sun shined brightly while peeking through the curtain's gap beside the bed. The chirps from the birds outside woke her up from her slumber and the blonde cracked her eyes open lazily.

Yawning, the mage-singer rubbed her tired eyes and whined when the tiredness still took over her body. Though the sun was still shining out there, the autumn's cool air still swept her skin creating goose bumps along her spine. She was about to pull the blanket closer to her chin when a familiar warmth spread from her back.

Rolling over, she blinked when a very familiar figure with pink hair was laying beside her, close enough that she could feel his breath on her face as she rolled over to face him. Blush coated her pale cheek at the sight of the handsome fire mage in front of her.

Holy Mowly.

The funny thing was, she wasn't too surprised to see the one and only Natsu Dragneel laid close beside her, okay, a little bit too close, but still, she couldn't help but notice that the warmth, the comfort, the gentleness she felt came from him.

With a sigh, she faced him fully and decided not to wake the peaceful sleeping man up.

She wasn't sure how long she stayed there, staring at the ceiling and Natsu back and forth. Judging by the light, it was probably 8 in the morning, when was he going to wake up?!

Just like magic, as soon as she thought about it, the rosette stirred and groaned in his sleep, rubbing his eyes as seconds later her brown orbs met his onyx ones. He blinked rapidly at the sight of the blonde and sent her a goofy smile. "Morning Luce!"

She gave him a look, "Morning. Now give me one reason why are you sleeping here."

His grin turned sheepish as he snuggled to the pillow they shared, "Your bed is comfortable."

"And you really think that I would buy that?"

"…Yes?"

Lucy rolled her eyes, "Natsu, this is your home, the beds here are all the same!" the man chuckled childishly, his hand reached up to brush some bangs away from her eyes, another set of blood lined up on her face, this time darker than usual.

"But this bed is more comfortable."

"T-That doesn't mean you can sleep here!" his chuckles got louder as she scowled at him, face red with embarrassment. When he saw how flustered she was, the man's laugh slowed to a stop as he smiled at the flushed girl. He didn't know why, but he just couldn't help to stare at her. But the stare he put on her paused when she yawned widely, covering her mouth with her palm and blinked to clear the sleepiness in her eyes.

"Still sleepy?"

She shrugged, giving him another look but not attempted to get up from the bed and move away from him. "Considering the amount of magic you put out earlier, it's reasonable that's you're this tired – " He added. " – You're strong." He complimented again, giving her a toothy grin. She scowled with red face and backed away just slightest bit, couldn't bring herself too far because it was just so damn cold. Feeling more heat stammered to her face and her heart beat quicker, she peeked up to the man.

"Natsu.."

"Hm?"

She couldn't contain the embarrassment on having the rosette staring at her so intensely. "T-thanks. For accompanying me yesterday. I was pretty scared to meet the spirits actually, and... it was nice having you there…" she mumbled quietly, the last part came out as whispers, her face got even darker.

Natsu grinned at the lady and scooted closer, "You really love them, huh?"

"Of course, they were the only one I have after my mom died, and realizing that they're lost scared me."

His lips curved upwards a bit at her sentence. "What did happen exactly with your life, Luce?" she jumped a bit at his question, finding it was shocking that he asked right now, on this very morning. She fell silent for a moment, not daring to open her mouth and say something. Sensing her silence, he opened his mouth again, "Come on, I've been so curious and there's always something that keeps in the way whenever I asked it!"

She giggled, "Why are you so curious?"

His lips curled into a smile, "That seems interesting, and…I don't know, I just, feel like I want to know you. Is that weird?"

She gave him a heart-warming smile that seemed to work the butterflies in his stomach. "No, that's cute."

"Hey! Guys aren't cute!"

"But you are!" she laughed, he pouted for a moment before launching himself on her, tickling her fiercely as she burst out laughing, her sounds echoed among the walls. Soon, the fire mage followed after her laugh, rolling on the bed as the feathers from the pillows flew everywhere, surrounding them.

When he stopped, looking down at the still giggling girl under him, her face flushed and a big smile on her face as she looked at him, brown eyes locked with his stunning onyx eyes.

He stifled laugh and laid back down to the mattress beside her, raising a brow with amused look, she smiled back and sighed, "You won't stop asking until I tell you, right?" he nodded sharply. The girl's eyes darkened for a slight moment before went back to normal, inhaling the air sharply.

"I don't remember much. But I remember myself being the luckiest girl ever in my childhood." She smiled, closing her eyes, memories of her parents popped in her mind. "My father was very rich, owning everything and can get everything in a blink of an eye, but he was caring, and he loved me and my mom more than anything else in the world."

"Hmmm…" she shot him a look. He stared back at the blonde with questioning eyes, "What? I'm listening! Just continue, weirdo!"

She heaved a sigh, "That day – a week before her death, I remembered my mom tucked me in at night and said that she'd go on a…trip? – I'm not sure, and I was whining and all but she gave me a joke and teased me that I'm scared without her there and I denied, pouting at her and we laughed and we laughed and… and…"

Her voice trailed off as she bit her lip to prevent cries, burying her face in the pillow. Natsu's eyes darkened and he put a hand on her head, patting her hair. She smiled a bit and took a deep breath.

"It was just… she went away on my birthday and a week later she…went forever. It was so unfair…right?" she asked herself, turning to face the ceiling, thinking her life over. "I mean, every little girl would think that they were cursed if they were me, and that was what I thought."

He scoffed, "You're such a weirdo."

She didn't even yell at him for the comment like she usually did. She just stared at the ceiling, smiling dumbly even though her heart cracked a bit at the memory.

"The ironic thing was my father changed that day. He became cold, rude, and only thought about money and even planned to marry me to some jerks. Though, I never paid attention to his antics either but still, it just added more sadness and –" she laughed bitterly, " – Jeez, my past wasn't so happy, huh?"

Natsu's eyes widened at her story, he never thought Lucy had such a sad past. She looked like a cheerful girl! He started to doubt if she was saying the truth or not but her face said it all.

It was true.

"Hey you don't have to continue if you don't want to…"

"No it's okay. It'll be better this way." She replied, cutting him off as she looked at him determinedly.

"I guess my father and I didn't exchange another father-daughter relationship ever since. I moved to Clover Town since I was sixteen, practicing singing with my mother's old friend but when I turned eighteen, Father died."

The fire mage beside her held his breath at how calm her voice sounded. Her face was peaceful, not a single hint of sadness and that about-to-cry tone wasn't heard. He wondered how many more secret this lady got in her.

"I don't know what I did next. The next thing I know was I became a singer in Clover Town, and I almost forgot about magic, about how my mother taught me to love magic and spirit dearly and I almost forgot that I was a mage either.."

He didn't say anything.

"But I guess that changed, since this Huckleberry came." She smiled, pulling the amulet out of her clothes and watched in sparkling with the light from the sun peeking from the window. Something about that sentence warmed his cheek a bit but he managed to form a small smile. The pair smiled at each other before Lucy sighed.

"What about you?" he looked down as she snuggled to his chest, the man instinctively wrapped his arms around her small figure. "What happened to you and Wendy that day?"

A sigh leaved his lips, "Wendy was crying I guess. She was just a little girl and she was scared, she didn't used to have Mom and Dad away for too long."

"What about you?" she urged again, peeking from his chest. The way her eyes shined curiously made him chuckle, a teasing smile curled on his lips. "I don't feel like talking about it."

"But I told you my story! You should tell me too!" she pouted, puffing her cheek and was about to get up but got stopped when Natsu's warm hand held hers and pushed her back to the bed, squeezing it a bit. "Wait, don't go."

"Shush, Wendy must be up, I have to help her with breakfast!"

She paused when he pouted and wrapped his arms around her body, caging her and stopped whatever she was doing and all the blonde could do was blinking her eyes. Holding her breath as she felt his nose in her hair and his warmth around her, Lucy didn't say anything, her face tucked on his shoulder.

"Natsu?"

"I don't remember much." He said, silencing her. The mage-singer closed her mouth instantly. "I woke up that day calling my dad to fight me but there was no reply, the house smelt different. My parents weren't there."

Her heart dropped at his sentence and her eyes burned slightly. She knew that feeling, that feeling of anticipation of waiting someone to come.

"Wendy was crying and we searched around the house. Their room – heh, they didn't even came out when we set the room in a mess – the paper, the contract they signed in front of me disappeared too. They're not there. They just…left."

Lucy knew that it was Natsu who was telling stories, but she found herself crying.

"I think we just waited after that, until Gramps came and we told him everything and…Those council guys came? Yeah, I guess so – they didn't help much, though. No, scratch that, they didn't help at all."

And for some reason, that hold around her just tightening and she for some reason, too, snuggling deeper to him.

"I guess I didn't give a good 'first impression' to the council –" he paused to let out a chuckle, " – I mean, I really did almost got the building on fire and just shouted random things, but Wendy and the cats just stayed back while Gramps knocked me off to calm me down."

She felt him playing with her hair and she just sort of letting him.

"They, you know, like I told you, how I joined the guild with Wendy and began stealing the artifacts -"

"You stole the artifacts since you were eleven?!"

"Ye – wait, No! It began when I was…15?"

She giggled from his shoulders, "You little thief!"

"Oh shut up. They're mine anyways."

The blonde giggled even more and pulled away from his hold, rubbing her eyes. "What happened after that?"

"Oh, I don't know. Everything just turned out fine, I'm sure wherever they are, that idiot old man will protect mom." A smile formed on her lips as she heard his response.

" What about Wendy?" he raised a brow at that. "What about her?"

She tapped her fingers together. "How did she feel?" a grin stretched on the fire mage's face. "Never underestimate a Dragneel, Luce. She was fine, of course!"

She sighed in relief and nodded. From her days in Magnolia, especially in the Dragneels house, she couldn't help but like the little girl. she was just so sweet, and cute an nice. Every other thing for a perfect little sister.

"But she was crying before, no?" he scrunched his face at that. "Well yes, I forgot why she stopped." Lucy face palmed at his idiocy and sighed. But seconds later, a soft smile replaced it as she stared up at him.

"Are you going to stop stealing after this?"

"Why should I?"

"Coz, we're stuck together?"

He smirked, "It's possible for you to come with me, no?"

The key user blushed, "No way!"

"But we're stuck together, Luce!"

"N-No!"

He laughed at her red face and hugged her again, laughing. She could hear his voice rumbled in his chest. "Gosh, you're just so weird!"

"And you're so stupid."

Another set of laugh could be heard and Lucy smiled, Natsu was just so dumb.

"But Luce, aren't you happy that I'm a thief?"

She hummed, "Why's that?"

"Coz that brought us together!"

Her heart pounded at his sentence and she buried herself to his chest tighter so he couldn't see her red face. "S-Shut up!"

"You mean you're not happy?"

"Yes! What if I get caught?"

"But I won't let that happen, remember?" he pulled away and held her shoulder. His smirk got wider when he noticed her flustered face. "You really should shut up." He stuck his tongue out at her and got up, pulling her with him. The girl squealed at the contact and glared at him. "Gosh! Can't you mind a personal space for a while?"

He blinked, "What personal space?"

"Urgh, you're so stupid!" she groaned, her face was still red from embarrassment and this guy was driving her insane. She felt his hand once again grabbed hers and played with her fingers. She let him and watched as he drew patterns on her palm.

"But you like me, right?" he asked, grinning playfully at her. Lucy bit her lip before smiling at him, pulling her hand back and get up from the bed. Natsu's black orbs followed the girl fixing her hair in front of the mirror before opening the door. Looking at him from behind her shoulder, she winked, "I guess I do. Really do."

And the door was closed again, leaving Natsu with blank expression looking at the wooden surface.

* * *

"How was yesterday, Lucy?" Mira asked, wiping the glass with a cloth when Lucy slumped to the seat in front of her. The blonde smiled towards the bartender, "It was fine. Except that Natsu had a little too friendly chat with one of the spirit yesterday." She sighed recalling Natsu and Loki's staring contest yesterday.

"What? He did it first."

"Loki didn't do anything, Natsu."

"Loki?" Mira's ears perked up at the sound of another male from the pair's argument. "My friend. He's a Lion Spirit –"

"And a big flirt." Lucy threw him a dirty look, scowling. "He's a flirt, okay. What's that to you anyway?"

The man crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't like him."

"Because he's flirting with Lucy?" Mira couldn't help but to join the chat. Seeing Natsu that protective and jealous was something she always wanted to see for years. The rosette just pouting, looking away. "He's just getting on my nerve."

"Aw my, Natsu is jealous." Another voice spoke up, they looked to the side to see his childhood friend sat beside Lucy, grinning madly. Natsu gaped at her, "I thought you're on my side Lisanna! And no! I'm not jealous over that Kitty!"

"Natsu is jealous? My that's a hot news!" Lucy gasped at the sudden voice behind her and spun on her chair, seeing Levy piped up with Wendy beside her. The little girl stared at them in amusement. The man in the middle groaned.

"I'm not!"

"Natsu is already grown up." They looked to the side to see Erza crossed her arms over her chest, a satisfied smile on her face. Lucy sweat dropped and turned her attention back to the man beside her, smiling at his embarrassment.

"What's up with this girly topic?!" he exclaimed and stood up but got Erza and Lisanna glaring at him to sit down, Mira having a dark aura around her. The man gulped and sunk back down to his chair.

Wendy tugged Lucy's skirt lightly and smiled brightly at her, "Can you summon Loki-san again, Lucy-san? I wanna see the man that able to make my brother jealous."

Lucy grinned, "Of cou –"

"NO WAY." Natsu grabbed her hand and glared dagger at her and Wendy back and forth, "You are not calling Choky again."

"His name is Loki…" she corrected nonchalantly. The man ignored her as the girls began squealing again.

"He's really jealous!"

"Natsu is a man!"

"He's not that little cute boy anymore!"

Natsu growled at the girlish voice around him, feeling sick to the stomach at their voices. Taking a deep breath, he hopped from his chair and ran away from the group, much to their whines. Erza was about to tackle him to the ground when another question from Lisanna caught her interest.

"Nee Lucy, you know that he likes you, right?"

The lady in question froze and stared at the white head in surprise. "W-What?"

"Oh, stop playing dumb, girl. When a Strauss already said something about love or crush, that's the truth." A drunk voice spoke and all pairs of eyes in the little group turned to see Cana sat on a chair behind Lisanna, nodding. The youngest Strauss grinned and high fived the drunk mage.

"Mm! But what about you?" she asked again. All eyes turned back to Lucy. "What about me?"

"Well, do you like Natsu?" her brown eyes looked back at her petite friend. Her face flushed a bit but that went noticed by the girls. "Oh gosh! You DO!"

Lucy cleared her throat. "Of course I do. Who wouldn't like him?"

A chorus of disappointed 'Aawe' followed after. "We mean, do you likelike him? Like, like Love?"

The mage-singer nearly choked on her spit as she stared at her friends like they were crazy. "WHAT? Girls, we've only known each other for a week or two!"

"And you guys live together."

"And practically stuck together."

"I heard he never leave your side, too."

They gave her a look as she blushed, sweating all over. "You know it's because of Huckleberry."

A sighing contest continued as the girls looked at her in boredom, "Because of Huckleberry or not, you guys have a thing for each other. The whole guild can see it."

"But we really are just a best friend, not a couple." She smiled reassuringly at them, trying to brush the slight pinch on her heart off.

"Yet."

She sighed once more, "It's just Huckleberry, guys."

Mira pouted, Lisanna and Levy were rolling their eyes as the rest just stared at her. "You just can't see what we're seeing every day."

"But I've only been here for few days." She argued more, furrowing her brows. "He held you hand."

"We hold hand every time. He just got this habit to drag me everywhere."

"No, he reached for your hands instinctively. And you did that too."

"He's making sure we didn't get separate!"

"He likes you!"

She groaned in frustration, feeling the urge to cry at her friends' arguments.

* * *

"Those annoying, head wracking – pain in the ass girls." Natsu mumbled sets of incoherent words as he made his way to the guys table, slumping down beside Gray and Happy. The ice mage raised a brow at the rosette, not caring that he was half naked (again).

"What's wrong Flame Head? Girls got your ask knocked?"

Natsu turned to his frienemy and glared, "Shut up Ice Brain!"

"Natsu, what's wrong? You look unhappy." Happy commented, pausing with his fish as he looked at his best friend. "Did Lucy do something weird again?"

"No, those girls just getting annoying and won't stop talking about that Loli guy!"

Gray stared at Happy in confusion. _'Who the heck is Loli?'_

Happy snickered, "One of Lucy's spirit. She said he's the strongest of all."

The black haired man blinked, "Lucy's strongest spirit's name is Loli?"

The blue furred cat shrugged, not caring to correct the name, leaving Gray blinking blankly, "O-kay. So what is it with you?" he asked again to the fire mage who kept sulking, a scowl on his face. "Tell him Happy."

The exceed let out an 'Aye' before a "Natsu was jealous coz he flirted with Lucy."

Gray nodded in understatement.

"Oh, I thought – Wait, WHAT? NATSU IS JEALOUS OH GAWD!"

The background filled with some indignant and protested shouts from Natsu as Happy laughed at his friend's embarrassment.

The next second Gray was grabbing Natsu by shoulders and shook him back and forth, pulling his pink hair to see if that was an imposter. The rosette glared murderously at his rival and shoved him away. "The heck Ice Butt?!"

"No, I'm just seeing if it's really you. And considering by your still stink personality, yup. You're Natsu."

"What did you say?!"

"Are you going deaf too, Mister I'm-jealous-over-a-spirit-and-there's-nothing-you-can-do-about-it?!"

"I'm not jealous!"

"Yeah, and I'm the Prince of Fiore."

"…You suck."

"Why you!"

Happy cut them off, flying to cover his paws on their faces. "Guys! Don't fight! You'll ruin Erza's mood!"

They became quiet instantly and nodded sharply. Natsu turned to sit back down on the chair, his eyes darted back to the girls questioning things about Lucy while the girl sat in the middle, waving her hand in defense. He heard few things like 'Like', 'Loki' and 'Natsu' but the rest of their voice muffled against each other annoyingly.

"What's so good about this Loki guy.." he muttered, his chest burned at the thought of that man flirting with Lucy. With Luce. He groaned to his hands and took a deep breath to calm himself.

"Ooh, I got it." Natsu turned towards Gray who had his hand cupped his chin, a smirk on his face. "What?" he asked.

"He got the 'L' word. Happy, he got the 'L' word." He told Happy, the cat grinning mischievously.

"Yeah, Leukemia."

"Ye – Wait, NO! The four lettered word. Start with 'L', ends with 'E'."

"Ooh, That One!" he grinned wider than before, high fived with the ice mage. The rosette raised a brow at them, completely clueless by their conversation. "What 'L' word?"

"Lllooove~"

The mage blushed slight pink and shook his head rapidly, "Heck No."

They smirked at his reaction, "He's blushing Happy!"

"Aye!"

"Happy! I thought you're on my side!"

"But your blushing face is funny!" he laughed, Natsu pouted and looked away. His face felt a bit warmer than usual, he could feel warmth from his chest also, he concluded it caused by Huckleberry. Cursing at his friends' echoing laughter, he looked back at Lucy.

She met his eyes and smiled, her face was still red due to the questions her friends directed to her. To his Onyx, stunning sharp eyes, she looked so cute, so beautiful and so…bright,

Shaking his head rapidly, Natsu Dragneel sighed at his own thought. Sure, she was beautiful, bright, cheerful, a bit annoying and talk too much, but so caring and sweet. He knew he liked her as friend, and he would do anything to keep those Council bastards if they even try to touch her, and he knew it scared him to death when she was lost and Wendy said that she was suffocating before. He knew it'd break him if something happened to her.

Even though he knew her just for few weeks.

Even though she held so much secret which got him eager to hear more.

Taking one more glance at the pretty blonde, Natsu thought to himself.

So, was he in Love with Luce?

* * *

**Oh, Natsu. You're just one hell of a slow young man -_-**

**But that's what makes you so cute xD **

**KYAAAA! I really did almost faint from excitement when I watched the newest episode. GOSH! WHAT THE HECK DID LUCY SAY TO NATSU IN THE INFIRMARY? They really r going to kill me by making me so curious OAO And yay! Natsu-Gajeel vs Sting-Rogue up next! xD I can't waaait ^^**

**My test are killing me with their God-Knows-Who-Created-Them questions and I really need to study, Biology up ahead xD**

**I'll update ASAP I can. So, pwetty pwease leave a review minna xD tat'll support me! ^^**

**till next time~**

**-Nachii**


	8. Chapter 8

**Two days.**

**I suppose to update this two days ago! Blame the internet connections! they're so cruel to me and won't let me update my fanfic and it drove me crazy that I actually cried! OAO**

**Nevermind, I actually a bit grateful that there's a bit connection now, at least I can update. I felt bad to break my promise to my bestie that I'd update this on Monday, gomen Hoshi-onna-chan TT^TT and gomen to all my reviewers for updating a bit late. But thanks for all those sweet reviews! xD thanks a lot minna!**

**Ok, don't waste your time by reading my mourns, here you go Huckleberry chapter 8! ^^**

**Hope you like it~**

* * *

Chapter 8

Lucy let her fingers slid on the glass surface of one of the artifacts in the Guild's Basement. There were about 30 artifacts there, hidden from the outside world, kept safely in the Basement with only the Guild member know. All of Natsu's hardwork.

Her hand reached up to her chest, feeling the female Huckleberry on her chest, warmth emerged from the dragon Amulet. The warmth relaxed her a bit, as she kept gazing to all the artifacts around her. After a few seconds of staring at them, she heaved a sigh and let her mind wandered back to the letter she got this morning.

_**Ms. Heartfilia and Mr. Dragneel**_

_**It seems like our meeting a week ago didn't get any progress at all – unless you count Mr. Dragneel almost burned me as a progress – and I'm quite sure that you both still need a help, whether you deny it or not.**_

_**I've been observing and began a research in the Council about Oracion Seis, the artifacts, and the mission your parents took many years ago. But like I said before, there's nothing there. The paper, the contract, everything has been signed by your parents and given to Oracion Seis. **_

_**Even so, Makarov wasn't the only one that knew Mr. and Mrs. Dragneel for long, I am their friend, too and I know that they won't give any false clue to their son (as you told me the first time you came here). I, also know that you have a big faith in your parents and I already heard that Mrs. Heartfilia was there in the mission and passed away that day. There is indeed something suspicious around here. **_

_**As much as I want to help you, I can't say anything to the other fellow Councils about my meeting with the Midnight Salamander because Natsu Dragneel would assumed as the suspect of the robberies you've done these years, and even though the Artifacts were your family belonging (or are), they still are the Councils' right, and always be. Our meeting the last time was still becoming a secret that only us to know. That's important not only for Natsu Dragneel's safety, but also for Ms. Heartfilia, because the Mayor from Clover Town still think that you are a thief also.**_

_**The only idea I can think of for now is, do a research. I request and demand you stop your robbery action for a while and began to search everything related to Oracion Seis. Everything revolved around them. I know very well that you both need to know the truth, and to get the truth, you should not take the bait they gave to you, but instead capture the real suspect here.**_

_**I suggest you also hide the fact that you're a mage or what time of magic you use if, by any chance, you encountered yourself with Clover Town's Mayor again.**_

_**I hope this will help you and I'll keep this secret for now, but you both need to hurry before anything happen.**_

_**I wish you a good luck,**_

_**Yajima**_

Lucy sighed once more.

She received that letter early in the morning when she was preparing breakfast with Wendy. Natsu was still on her bed (again), and Wendy was in the bathroom, as she opened the letter and sat on the chair in the living room, reading it. She was a bit shocked that her name was written there, and when she finished the letter, she folded it again neatly and put it on the living room, making sure Natsu read it again.

Now here she was staring at the Dragon Artifacts Natsu got all those years. Standing here, creating tingles on her spine and she could feel all Natsu's feeling in them, all his love for his parents, all his sweat, maybe blood, his happiness and sadness.

She just couldn't let anyone take them from him. All of them, from the entire statue, the medals, and the weird jars and eggs, Huckleberry.

"BOO!"

A gasp escaped her throat and she spun around to meet a pair of onyx eyes stared at her in amusement and funnily.

A laugh was heard second after at her gaping face, the owner of those stunning eyes rolled on the floor, laughing his butt's off and clutched his stomach. A twitch formed on Lucy's forehead and she smacked him on his head making the laughter soon replaced with a wince.

"What the heck Luce!" she gave him a look, as she watched him got to his feet and rubbed his head softly. The bulge formed on his head and she suddenly felt bad. Walking to the rose haired man, she got to her tiptoes and looked at the bulge on his head, rubbing it gently. "Sorry," she muttered, "You're just startling me and… sorry."

He followed her movement as her gentle and delicate hand cupped his face and the other one went to the top of his head, examining his sore head – she really could punch – and her brown warm eyes looked concerned. The hand on his head felt surprisingly warm, and soft, and smooth, and sent shiver to his spine when she ran her one hand to his pink locks. "It's fine." He mumbled, trying so hard not to do or say anything stupid.

Releasing the breath he didn't know he was holding as she pulled away, he cleared his throat and asked, "What are you doing here – "

"Have you read the letter?" she cut, eyes narrowing at him. He looked uncomfortable suddenly and she'd take that as a yes. "What letter?" he muttered, looking away. He was the worst actor she ever saw, "That letter from Yajima-san."

"Who?"

"Natsu…" she said dangerously. He groaned and nodded weakly, "Yes, I have."

"So…"

"I don't see any importance in that letter – Ow! Why did you hit me?" he glared at her again, rubbing his head. Seriously, what was the point of her rubbing his head before if she was about to hit him again?

"You are so hopeless." She complained, rubbing her Huckleberry amulet between her fingers and sighed, he gave her an offended look.

"Well, say something then if you're feeling you're so smart." He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her demandingly. Lucy hissed at him before taking a deep breath.

"You said that you've been stealing these artifacts since you're fifteen, right?"

A nod was all she needed to continue. At least he was hearing.

"And you always made it safely, without any disturbance." The rosette opened his mouth to say something, before closing it, nodding once more at the thinking girl.

"Yajima-san said that he agreed, that there's something suspicious here about Oracion Seis and he half-assumed that they were the one behind your parents' disappearance, but – " she paused to look at the man beside her, his clueless face disturbed her a bit, but she continued.

"If Oracion Seis was smart enough to make your parents signed the contract and vanished them, I'm so sure they're smart enough to put a trap, anything, to draw you out of your disguise and take those artifacts they valued so much to make them shut your parents out somewhere, right?"

Natsu Dragneel blinked.

"I mean, if I were them, it's so obvious that a Dragneel would be behind this all, and I would've captured you. Not letting you go with the artifacts, don't you think so?"

Another blink of eye was there, and he didn't say anything for 2 minutes and half, she really counted it down, seriously.

"Hey Say something!"

"Whoa."

"That's it? I wasted all my saliva on that theory and all you gave me a dumb 'Whoa'? Why, thank you!"

"Uh, you're welcome."

She gaped, "I hate you!" before spinning on her heel, a furious smoke burst from her ears and her face red from anger. Natsu choked on his spit and grabbed her wrist in panic. "W-Wait Luce!"

"What DO YOU WANT?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to say that, but that's really smart and a 'Whoa' was the best thing to say and…Whoa."

She scoffed at him, narrowing her eyes and nearly giving him a death stare. "That's better."

"That was a very smart theory, did you eat something that make you this smart? A brain or book?"

"…You are sick."

"Hey! I was complimenting you." She pouted and looked away. "Well, thanks." A grin formed on Natsu's face and he spun her around by her wrist to face his smirking face. A squeak escaped her lips as he caged her in his arms, blowing playfully at her bangs. A bright blush coated her face.

"That scoffing face of you had been so cute."

"Oh shut up!"

He chuckled. She glared at him despite her blushing face and continued, "Anyway, this only means two theories."

"There is another theory?"

She ignored him, "Either Oracion Seis is waiting for the right time to trap you, or they're not the suspect from the start."

"See? I'm starting to believe 'My' theory that you eat books and brains for living. You're one hell of a smart chick."

She laughed at that, like, really laughed. "And you're such an idiot."

He leaned at her face, smiling smugly, "But you know a secret? Opposite does attract." The whisper from him caused her to blush even more.

* * *

"Holy Crap of a holy! Did he really say that?" Lucy ignored her best friend's weird metaphor and blushed shyly. "Um, yes."

"He llllliikes you!" Levy rolled her tongue, smirking teasingly. The blonde bit her lip and looked away.

"Watch out, Lis. I might win the bet."

The youngest Strauss beside Levy pouted, "The bet is still on, I'm not giving up!"

"Whoa whoa, what bet?"

"Sorry, Levy, Lisanna, the winner has been decided, it's me." Another voice interrupted, Mira eyed them with a confident smile, kept wiping the glass. Both girls beside Lucy protested. "No way!"

"Excuse me, I'm still here!"

"Your guess wasn't even reasonable, Mira."

"Love doesn't need reasons, Levy."

"But Mira-nee, you're a bit too far."

"Did you guys really ignore me? I mean, IGNORING me?!"

"Shut it Lu-chan. I'm defending my money here."

Lucy stared at her friends, "Excuse me, but I WAS THE ONE WHO NEEDS A GIRL TALK IN THE FIRST PLACE."

"Aw, I really can wait to take my money later when I win."

"No way Lisanna! I'm getting the bet."

"Sorry, girls. I'll take that!"

"Me!"

"ME!"

"MEE!"

"MEEE!"

"MEEEE!"

A tug on her shirt got Lucy turned from her crazy friends to the little Dragneel beside her, standing and looking at the arguing girls curiously, "What's wrong Lucy-san?"

"Wendy Wendy Wendy! Sweetheart, remind me again why I'm in the middle of this situation?"

"Um…"

"MEE!"

"MEMEMEME!"

"MEMEMEMEEE!"

"Are they going to be okay?" the blunette asked again, feeling very concerned now. Lucy gave her a smile – which she found creepy – and said, "Leave them be, they're arguing about some bets, I don't know. But it's clearly something a pure innocent girl should not follow. You hear me? Don't do this at home!" She nodded rapidly at the lady's words.

"But what are you doing here, then?"

"I'm having a girls talk with them! Then they ignored me! Ha! THEY IGNORED ME. WHO NEEDS THE HELP IN THE FIRST PLACE?!"

"O-Okay." the girl squeaked lightly, the blonde didn't noticed how she was trembling on her spot. "AND your IDIOT brother was taking his own time in front of the request board – GODDAMN NATSU PICK A JOB ALREADY!" she yelled at him who turned to her briefly and grinned – she sent him her famous glare – before turning back to his job searching in fear.

"How can you cope up with him?!" she asked desperately. Wendy smiled in amusement, "He's lovable."

"He's NOT."

"Yes he is. You'll love him soon enough."

"Oh please, not you too." she groaned, standing up to get some fresh air outside. "You guys look cute together."

"Wendy…"

"I'm stating fact!"

Lucy let herself have a smile before turning around, about to step but tripped over a small hole on the wooden floor. She gasped as she lost her balance and closed her eyes. But before the hard floor cracked her pretty face, a pair of warm arms placed gently on her waist, steadying her composure.

She swore she heard Wendy gasped, and the trio at the barstool held their breath.

A chuckle rumbled on the culprit's warm chest, "Okay, you're smart, but you're clumsy."

She looked up and blushed when her brown eyes met those stunning-beautiful-hypnotizing-got her weak on the knee-onyx eyes she began to love. "I'm not clumsy, the hole got in the way." She managed to say, regaining her balance with his arms still around her waist. "The hole? Sure."

"A-anyway, the job?"

He showed her a paper. Something about taking out robbers or something, she wasn't so sure. Her head was spinning. It must be his warmth, yup, his warmth.

"Kyaaa! I am really winning the bet!"

And the trio was back.

"No! it's ME!"

"NO! ME!"

"ME!"

"What's up with them?" he asked, releasing her waist and pointed his chin to the still arguing girls. She sighed, "Something about bet. And they 'Really helped' me. Really helped."

"O-kay?"

"Just.. Come on," she urged, her head throbbing. They better get this job quickly, or she was really going to burst.

* * *

"Lushy."

…

"Lushyy.."

…

"LUSHYYY!"

"What? Happy, what?"

"Do you have some fish?"

"…You called me for fish? Fish Happy?"

The blue exceed shrugged, "I'm hungry."

"You just ate my lunch an hour ago. MY lunch, AN HOUR AGO." She pointed an accused finger at the cat, he looked terrified. She really wasn't in a very good mood today. There was so many things she thought about. The paper, the artifacts, her keys, her feeling towards Natsu.

"AUUUURGH…"

Natsu exchanged glances towards his blue furred partner. Happy leaned towards his partner and whispered in his ear, not too quietly, "Hey, I can't believe she stated those smart theories like you told me before, it's so out of her character!"

Natsu whispered back, "She's weird, huh?"

"And she's heavy."

"Really?"

"Yes, when I picked her up earlier, I swear my wings can't stand her weight!"

If the glanced at her now, maybe they could see those twitch of irritation forming on her head, but no, they were too busy to notice and Lucy decided that the best thing she could do now was ignoring them.

_Ignore them Lucy, ignore.._

What she needed now was a bath, a cup of her favorite cappuccino and fresh air.

Sighing, the blonde looked down towards her solid hologram keys. Their mission went well enough. The destruction from Natsu didn't affect their money, but still, the mayor from that town decreased it, and it nearly make Lucy cry. She knew she really didn't need money too much. Her money from all the singing she got in Clover Town for years was enough for her life. But the fact that she was staying in Dragneels house caused her to think about her responsibilities as a guest there.

And no, she really didn't want to be a burden on the Dragneels siblings life, whatever they said.

"Luce?"

The mage-singer snapped out of her thought and turned to her friends, "Yeah?"

"Happy and I will go to that restaurant near the river, let's go there!"

She rolled her eyes, "Nah, I'm good, I'll enjoy the view in here," she waved her hand towards all the trees around them, causing Natsu to blink. "In the wood? But we're stuck together!"

"It's not that far. I'll be fine." She assured him, smiling a bit. A nice scenery was what she needed now. Yeah, with trees and smell of wood, and birds chirping around her. Yup, that'd be nice.

"You sure?" he asked again, tilting his head a bit, Happy sent her an apologetic smile, the young woman grinned and nodded.

Finally, Natsu and Happy shrugged, "We'll bring you some fish later." The cat offered, eyes twinkling as he went on daydreaming about fishes before tugging Natsu. "Come on Natsu!"

With one last lingering look on her – okay, that did make her heart skip a bit – the two exited the wood and ran to who-knows-where.

As another sigh escaped her lips, Lucy sat down under a tree and opened her book to read. Her mind wandering back to all her problems and thought, why was she the only one troubled by all of those problems, because, get real! It was all Natsu's problems, well, except the 'feelings' one. Then why was she feeling so troubled by it? She didn't know how long she had been sitting there, and still there was no sign of the boys coming back. They sure had a large capacity in their stomach.

A sound of carriage in the distance interrupted her track of thought once more. Groaning lowly, she stood up to see who it was.

That was one good carriage there, with wooden surface shining and freshly polished, two brown horses ran pulling it and Lucy just couldn't help but stare.

That, until the carriage stopped in front of her.

Feeling slightly anxious, her hand closed her book and plopped it into her bag, her other hand instinctively reached down to her keys. The door opened and she held her breath, if something happened, she must be ready.

She was about to say something to the strangers inside the carriage before her mouth stopped, her eyes widening as someone stepped down the carriage, looking at her with slight side eyes, his short composure made him should cranked his head up a bit.

"M-Mr. Mayor?" Why, why him above all of the cool guys who looked fit with the nice carriage? Why him?

The Clover Town's Mayor glared at her, "YOU AGAIN!"

She cursed under her breath and about to draw her keys to summon anyone, before she remembered that she should hid the fact that she was a mage. Especially to him. Slapping herself mentally, Lucy was about to spun around –

When a hand clamped around her wrist, nearly breaking it because of the tight. She winced and looked back to see a cloaked figure behind her, a gasp elicited from her lips coz she didn't even see him coming.

Where did he come from?

She knew she didn't have time to think right now as her left hand nearly got crushed by him – her – she wasn't sure.

"Get her! She's one of the suspects!" the blonde heard the short man shouted, feeling the urge to throw something at him so he got shorter than humanly possible. The hand tightened around her left wrist made it impossible to flick her hand out. Growling in frustration, the lady raised her other fist to punch the person, but he grabbed it, and trapped both hands of her.

She narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth, glaring at him – her – whatever. A smirk from the person freaked her out even more.

"Well I can see the resemblances you have with 'her'." He mused, widening his smirk when her brown eyes widened. Okay that's a He, but what? Focus Lucy!

"What do you mean?" she asked, voice low dangerously.

"Now why don't you give me my treasures back?"

He was talking about the artifacts, Lucy struggled in his grip, but it was no use. She needed to get out of here before he witnessed her keys, or her guild mark!

She heard the mayor once more yelling something about arresting her. And the man in front of her yawned. Yawned. "Fine fine, you owe me once more, Mr. Ma –"

He stopped and jerked backward as he sensed other presence from the side. But he didn't make it in time as a sandal-clad foot kicked him in the jaw and causing him to stumble backward, releasing his prisoner's hand.

Lucy eyes widened even more at the scene in front of her coz, whoa, the cloak fell from his face and a man with the weirdest face came into view. Purple lips, baggy eyes, and spiky hair, but she didn't have time to look at the person as a pair of warm arms encircled around body, lifting her up bridal style and causing her to blink dumbly.

When she looked up, all of her panic, anxiety and fear washed off as a pair of onyx eyes looked at her soothingly. She noticed a cloak hiding his tuff of pink hair and couldn't help but wondered how he got that cloak from.

And where the heck was Happy?

Natsu looked back at the man beside the mayor, eyes glaring at him murderously before he gathered air in his lungs and chanted 'Fire Dragon's Roar' under his breath, bursting bright hot flames from his mouth. Lucy eyes the flame with horror expression and mouth agape. "W-Wait! The mayor!"

"He's fine." He answered to her, without looking away from the blazing fire. The rosette could feel that mysterious man shielded himself and the mayor from the fire, but there was no time for that. He should get themselves out of the wood undetected first.

"Wait Natsu! That guy knows something!" she protested, a bit struggling but Natsu ignored her.

He ran in full speed, gently tightening his hold around the still shocked girl in his arms. When he was sure that they were far enough, and no more that guy's smell in the air, he made a turn in an alley and set Lucy down before peeking out. Seeing there was no mystery guy everywhere.

Sighing, he turned back towards the girl. "What were you thinking?!"

She blinked, "What was I thinking? What were YOU thinking?! You set the woods on fire! And there's Mr. Mayor there! Gosh, you gave me another set of bad reputation!" she crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at him, a scowl written on her face.

"You almost get caught – why didn't you run?" he asked back, leaning towards her face and glared back. "How can I run when he was crushing my wrist?!"

Natsu tried his best not to check her wrist and his worry, "But you could've summon anyone, what about that mighty Lion of yours?" he began to question himself for changing his tone. She rolled her eyes at him. "What is it about bringing Loki up? He got nothing to do with this and you – " she paused to jab her fingers in his toned chest.

"Do you think I could just easily reveal the fact that I'm a mage too? The guild could be in danger! And Yajima-san clearly stated that we should hide ourselves!"

"Damn it! Don't make it hard, Luce! It's about the fact that you're almost got caught!"

"Why you – Uurgh!" she groaned and covered her face with her palms, feeling so frustrated now and wanting to cry her heart out. Natsu freaked out at the sudden change of attitude. "What now?"

She gave him a death stare and stood up, trying to calm herself by taking a deep breath, but no, it didn't work, "Where's Happy?"

"I-In the restaurant?"

She gasped, "You left him alone?! What if the mayor get there?!"

"Calm down! He didn't even know her!"

"Urgh, what if he said something and the mayor heard it and he got caught leaving us to deal with them – "

"Dammit Luce!" he half yelled half whispered, rubbing his throbbing head. "You're such a big talker like a hamster!"

She stomped his foot, going out from the alley, "Hamster? That's the best you can come up with?"

"What the heck was wrong with you?!" he groaned as her foot made contact with his, wincing and following her out, walking to the restaurant. "No, what the heck was wrong with YOU?!" she retorted back, her eyes got murderous as each words passed her lips. He shivered at her demon face.

"What, are you in your period or something?"

Okay, it wasn't the best word to say at times like this. The glare he received was much more scarier than Erza's. _Oh God save him._

* * *

"We're in this again? Luce! It was just a wood!"

"You burned it! Someone could be killed! I could've been killed by the mayor the next time I run into him!"

"Who told you to run into him from the start?!"

The whole Guild turned towards the arguing pair as they came into the hall, Happy followed behind with a disappointed look at them.

"I didn't run into them! They just sort of passing by!"

"Well maybe you have a magnet to pull trouble into you!"

"What on earth was that suppose to mean?!"

"You know, like gravity and Gray's clothes that always pull each other – "

"Excuse me, what do I have to do with your married couple fight?" the ice mage on the counter butted in, completely unknown to the fact that he indeed lost his clothes.

"SHUT UP GRAY! And that was the lamest, worst, most annoying insult ever!" Lucy screamed, planting her hands on her hips.

"Oh yeah? Think you can came up with something even better, Ms. Smart Pants?"

"Well at least I'm not someone who burned a wood without thinking!"

"Oh? Are you expecting me to just leave you there and do nothing?" he dared, a ghost of smile in his eyes. She hissed at him, "No, but at least you could've buy me some time – that man was about to say something!"

"Why are you so troubled with it?!"

She really exploded right now, "Because IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT YOUR PARENTS!" she screamed at him.

Now everyone was staring, great.

She didn't stop. "Can't you stop thinking about yourself?" she whispered. His eyes widened at the sight of her wet eyes. "My mom was there too. She WAS there and she's not coming back forever because of that stupid mission that I even don't know about and that man – he was saying something about my mom before you just popped up out of nowhere and let your temper take over like it was nothing!"

Natsu didn't say anything, too shock to even utter a word.

"Do you really think I would do something that'll endanger the guild? Do you really think I did that without thinking?"

He frowned deeply, "Luce – "

"You're lucky you'll meet up with your parents someday, you still have chance while I can only meet my parents if I'm dead." She offered him a bitter laugh. "Have you ever think so?"

"…" he didn't respond. Everyone held their breath.

"It's not just about you. They're my mom's best friends, of course I cared about them, and I still need my keys. I didn't stay up with you just because this stupid Huckleberry coz jeez, it wasn't me who put it on me in the first place, but have you ever think so? Have you?"

Another silence from the man in front of her was enough for her.

"Exactly. It's just like you never thought about it at all." She smiled, tears came down on her face, breaking his heart. Turning around on her feet, she ducked her head and walked out slowly. Her last sentence didn't come unnoticed to his sharp ears.

"Because you never cared."

* * *

**Wow, they're fighting. They really Are fighting. Wow, did I really just made them fight? Wow, I'm so surprised in myself xD *kicked***

**What'll happen between them? Stay tune guys xD the next chappie is already on the way, so just wait patiently :D**

**I really really don't want to watch another episode of FT right now, coz of the rumour said it'll be hiatus later TT^TT But hearing that the newest eps is Natsu vs Twin Dragon... WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE THE 'SUPER-HOT-AND COOL-NATSU' EPISODE?!**

**Fuuh, world is so unfair.. OAO**

**But anyway, pwetty pwease leave a review minna, ur reviews will soothe me from this cruel reality *kicked* (it's true- ahem) xD**

**till next time!**

**-Nachii**


	9. Chapter 9

**Oh wow. I hit 100! Oh my gosh! Minna I LOVE YOU AAAALL! XDDD Gosh, here, let me give you one a hug per each ^^**

**Gosh, I'm just so happy TT^TT how can I repay you guys, you guys are awesome and I love you all and.. *sniff* thank youu! xD**

**Nevermind, continue your reading, here you go Huckleberry chapter 9! *I updated faster! this is a miracle* xD**

**Hope you like iit~**

* * *

Chapter 9

She couldn't sleep.

It was three in the morning, no moon or stars, silent, peaceful, no sound except the soft wind blow outside, and it was dark, she had no intention to turn on the night light. It was a very good night to have a long sleep, but she didn't even close her eyes. She couldn't…and wouldn't.

Why? If it's any other day, she could call it the best night since that particular pink haired onyx eyed, handsome, warm bodied fire breather didn't intrude her bed. So why wouldn't she enjoy it.

Lucy Heartfilia completely had no idea.

Hugging the blanket closer to her chin, she frowned as her own words repeated itself in her mind.

'_Because you never cared.'_

'_Never cared.'_

_Never._

Never.

Did he really not care? Part of her said it was true, but most of her thought said otherwise.

What if he really didn't care? That he became so sweet and gentle and nice towards her just because of the amulet? What if it was all an act? A pretend? Since the day his attitude changed to all that sweet little guy, that theory had been her worst nightmare. A sudden feeling that it might come true scared her, so much that it hurt.

Okay, she admitted maybe – just maybe – she had gone too far by yelling at him, in front of the whole guild. But she just couldn't bring herself to care because he really did pissed her off and disappointing her.

That mysterious guy, she couldn't forget what he said about her resemblance with her mom. It meant something, she knew it, she knew she should just wait for a bit until he bragged it off, but no, Natsu just need to show up and ruin everything. Ruin her chance of getting an answer, ruin her chance to know the truth. Why couldn't he be like any other guy who would wait patiently and gave faith to their friend? Why?

He knew her mother meant so much for her, like his parents meant for him. Yet, why?

Did he even trust her at all?

Lucy closed her eyes, rolling to her side. Tonight was cold, like any other day – except she had no one to snuggle to tonight. No one to warm her, no one. No Natsu. And it sounded so bad to her ears. She kept telling herself that it was his fault, heck, he didn't even chase after her when she ran out of the guild. Did she mean so little to him? Or maybe she didn't mean anything at all.

But that face, his face when those yells directed at him was so…abstract. She swore she could remember shock, sadness and hurt on his face, she remembered it clearly. Though, she wasn't sure. She was feeling so clueless.

Lucy brought her amulet out of her shirt and ran her fingers to the shape of it, feeling it getting cold. A bitter smile came to her lips. Even that amulet could sense something between her and Natsu, it could sense that they were apart, and it didn't like it. It was as if the amulet was already a part of her heart.

* * *

"Natsu… Are you awake?"

The pink haired young man turned around to see his blue furred exceed stood in front of the door, rubbing his eyes. Happy smiled a bit when he saw his onyx eyes still opened, and walked to his bed, Natsu picking him up to the bed. "What's up?"

"Why are you still awake?"

He laid back down, putting his arms behind his head and stared at the ceiling. "Can't sleep."

Happy opened his mouth again, "You look horrible, go talk to Lucy, she'll make you feel better, won't she?"

A sigh escaped his lips, "It's not that easy, I need to clear my mind first."

"Do it quickly then. I don't wanna see you guys fight again." He said softly, snuggling to his side. Natsu looked at the cat for a moment before sighing.

Why didn't he chase after her back then? Instead he was spacing out in the guild, while the guild decided not to interfere and returned to their normal activities. He didn't go after her when it was sunset, he didn't do anything when he got home and Wendy said she was in her room, he didn't even talk to her.

Man, he was such a big jerk.

He knew he needed to apologize, but would it be simple? What if she wouldn't forgive him? Moreover, he never thought that she really thought that he didn't care for her. Mavis, she'd been in his mind 24/7 without he couldn't stop it and she thought he didn't care? He really should get things straight.

But the way her eyes glistened with the light and soft tears ran down her cheek really, really broke his heart and rip it to pieces. It's not like he didn't trust her, or what. It was just, the way that man got her hands and his devilish eyes smirked at her got the fire inside him to burn and he wouldn't forgive himself if something happened to her. He knew he'd punish himself for good. Why couldn't she understand that?

Natsu closed his eyes for a moment, pulling his amulet out of his shirt and examined it thoroughly. He sighed when he noticed that it was cold. Cold, even though it was safely kept under his shirt and above his un-normal body heat. Did Lucy get cold too?

Because, even with his own body heat, he still did.

* * *

Seriously, he'd rather have to eat Lucy's omelet than to face Yajima-san again.

And he did love Lucy's omelet.

Natsu's eyes shifted to Lucy beside him, bags under her eyes, describing that mysterious man's appearance to Yajima beside Gramps' office.

"Black – or was it purple? – spiky hair, those baggy eyes, and pale skin, black or purple lips, something like that, and he looked really – I mean awfully scary."

"And disgusting." He added, looking away before he could witness Lucy's stare at him. He still could feel her eyeing him before that feeling gone. No, he wasn't disappointed, he was just…

Nevermind.

Yajima looked at the pink haired fire mage for a while before turning back to Lucy, "And you're saying that he was with the mayor."

"Mm. Does it mean that he is one of Oracion Seis?"

The old man's lips curled into a smile, "Well, what do you think, Mr. Dragneel?"

He only answered it so Lucy wouldn't give him another look, he reminded himself. "He is. My nose never lies."

Hey, she still stared! Stop staring Lucy! You make me want to stare back! And he was avoiding her – he tried to at least.

"I notice the same smell when I take the artifacts. That smell lingered everywhere."

Oh thank God she turned away.

Yajima looked at both mages weirdly, before pulling out a photo. A familiar photo on it, same spiky hair, baggy eyes, boiling Natsu's blood. Lucy gasped and looked at the photo closely, nodding at the Council-guy. "It's him!"

"His name is Midnight. You should be aware at him. He's dangerous." The blonde in front of him raised her brows, "Dangerous? Wait, what do you mean by that? You actually made it sound like he was a bad guy, no?"

"Even though the Council never haven't considered them as a dark guild, Oracion Seis is actually a bunch of strong mages, including him."

"He looks like crap to me." The rosette beside the lady commented, Lucy sighed at him, but not turning, just a simple sigh. "We got it, Yajima-san."

He scoffed, couldn't help but did that. The look from the Council guy disturbed him a bit. Makarov was face palming beside him. "Just..be careful. And I suggest Lucy to disguise every time you're on a job. Wear a wig or something, to hide yourself. And Natsu – "

Natsu pouted, looked at his Gramps. "What? I don't need any disguise, right?"

"No, but don't so anything THAT reckless again!"

"As I said before," the fire mage turned to the blonde briefly to glare before turning back to the guild Master, "Yeah yeah."

"Good."

Silence enveloped them and neither Natsu or Lucy made a move to do anything. Yajima just got more curious, "Did something happen between you two?"

"Yes."

"No."

The old man watched as the pair turned towards each other for a split second before looking away. "O-kay." He stood up, "Well, I hope everything will be fine. Keep searching for anything suspicious, I need to go for now."

The others stood up as well. The stubborn pair prepared to leave as well to hear Yajima said once more, "Don't fight, you've became my favorite couple."

He didn't blush okay. It was the autumn, blame the autumn.

* * *

"So, you guys haven't made out yet?"

Lucy glared at her best friend, "Lisanna."

"Sorry, I mean, MAKE UP."

Levy laughed at them, "Well, I AM expecting you guys to make out too."

"Guys guys! Please, it's about me Fighting with him, not Making Out with him!"

Her best friends laughed, "That glare won't match your blushing face, Lucy." the girl huffed, looking away to hide her blushing face. "Are you two going to help me or not?"

They stifled their laughs hardly before answering, "Of course, but I think we just have to wait until he apologize." That sentence made Lucy sigh, she wasn't sure that he'd apologize. Because, it was Natsu they were talking about. That dense idiot! Okay, he was handsome, cute, cool, muscular and could be so sweet at times, had that eyes that got her melting, hot, not to mention –

Okay, she really should stop. This was really not helping her. She's love to have a stroll for a while, but on the other side she couldn't leave. Damn Huckleberry.

Standing up, she chose to go to the Guild's library, maybe some books would be nice. Yup, that would be very nice.

"Whoa whoa, where are you going, Lu-chan? We're not done talking here!" she waved at them with a sad smile and walked to the room. She could feel the burning sensation on her amulet and knew that Natsu was watching her. The blonde really hoped he would chase after her, but she knew she needed some time alone.

* * *

"_Mirror mirror hanging on the wall. _

_You don't have to tell me, who's the biggest fool of all._

_Mirror mirror I wish you could lie to me._

_And bring my baby back, bring my baby back…"_

"Well you do have a lovely voice." Lucy jumped from her seat in the library at the sudden interruption and turned around to meet Wendy Dragneel stared at her with smile on her face.

"Wendy, you just got me a heart attack.."

She snickered, "Sorry. Anyway, what are you doing here, Lucy-san?" the blonde pursed her lips together, doubting she could answer that she was avoiding Natsu. "Uh, reading. I mean.. Lovely books they have here! Ahahaha…"

The blue haired girl giggled, "You're avoiding my brother, aren't you?"

"Avoiding him – wha? No no, I'm just.. Uh, is it too hot here? Damn, Autumn does change in temperature.."

"What?" Wendy blinked.

"Nothing."

.

.

.

"Right. So, have you guys make – "

"Up. I know, you don't need to continue that."

"Lucy-san, are you okay?"

She smiled at the girl, "I'm fine, don't worry about me. And no, we haven't make up yet." The little girl stared at her suspiciously, narrowing her brown eyes at the singer. "Why? You guys are the cutest couple in Fairy Tail!" suddenly she gasped, " He hasn't apologize, huh?"

Lucy shook her head, "Why does everyone seem so surprised?"

"B-because you're Lucy-san! And my brother loves you! How can he not apologize yet?! He really is screwed, I'll make sure he won't get his favorite fire chicken tonight and – "

"Wait, what do you mean by he loves me? Natsu loves me?!" Lucy stopped the girl with her rambling grabbing her by shoulders and shook her back and forth, the poor girl's eyes spinning. Finally stopping, Lucy looked at the girl with red face, sweating bullets and heart racing.

"He does. Everyone can see it!"

"That doesn't mean he loves me! Maybe he just… being nice because… because…"

"Huckleberry?"

Lucy nodded, "Huckleberry."

Silence enveloped them for a few minutes before Wendy burst out laughing from beside her, startling Lucy and freaked her out. Oh god, did something happen to the innocent girl?

"Lucy-saaan…" she said, wiping her tears away and looked at the young woman weirdly. "Do you really think so?" the question just got her confused as she looked at the girl with dumb look.

"Natsu-nii really, I mean really care about you, and it's not because of Huckleberry."

"How do you know?" she asked, raising a brow, her heart sped up. "Lucy-san, he's my brother. I know him too well, and he never acted around a girl like he acted around you. He got this brightened up face and he couldn't help but smile around you. Why can't you see it?"

Lucy was silent. "And I know you feel the same."

Her eyes widened, "W-what?"

Wendy's lips curled into a bigger smile, "I heard everything from him. Maybe he burned the wood and did everything yesterday coz.." the blush on the mage-singer darkened. "He's afraid to lose you."

She was officially fainting inside her head now, she just couldn't believe it. Not yet at least.

"I do need a bath, and cappuccino."

Wendy giggled, "I'll tell Natsu-nii to go home with you, I promise Romeo-kun that I'll go on a job with him and Charle."

Lucy allowed her lips to form a smirk, "Oh, Romeo-kun, eh?" the girl blushed. If it was any other day, the blonde would tease her further, but she really needed some time to think now.

* * *

"No, you can't go."

"Aah? But I promise – "

"No."

"Natsu-nii!"

"No."

Wendy stared at her brother with tears in her eyes, her face got into puppy face mode made the man bite his lips and looked away. She was cute, okay. He was well aware of how her puppy face made him oblige everything she asked. But why the heck should she leave him and Lucy alone? Happy was being a traitor and said that he'd go with Romeo and Wendy. That was a big NO for them. They couldn't just leave him with the girl he was fighting with!

"Why?!"

"Because I said so!"

"You're so mean!"

"I'm not, I'm just disapproving you to go on a job for…as long as I'm still fighting with Luce."

"Go apologize to her then!"

"I will! Later." He mumbled the last part, Wendy glaring at him. "Do it now, and everyone will be happy!"

"How do you know that sentence?"

"Lucy-san said it every time."

Natsu groaned, everything was just relating itself with Lucy this and that and it was driving him crazy. "Go apologize, I'll go get Happy, he's fishing with Lily."

Natsu pouted as the little-but-hey-I'm-acting-more-mature-than-you girl opened the door and walked outside, she actually whispered, "And confess."

"Shut up."

She winked at his pinked face and closed the door. Natsu sighing and slumped on the couch. Lucy was in her room –again – and he knew he should apologize and stuff, get things straight, but… Why was it so difficult to just say, 'Luce, I'm sorry, let's be happy again!'?

He closed his eyes. It just had been a day, but he already missed her being around him and so close to him. It just had been almost two months since they met each other, but he was already get used to being close to her, holding her hand and hugging her time to time, teasing the girl out of the blue, burying his nose in her golden hair, sleeping with her in his arms.

Damn it, why was it so difficult?!

He cursed under his breath before standing up, better get over it already. Walking towards her bedroom, he gulped all of his fear and nervousness. He was staring at the wooden door for a moment before raising his fist, knocking the door few times.

In the inside, Lucy was laying on the bed, book on her hand, when the knock was heard. She rolled over and raised a brow. "Wendy, is that you?"

That, until the voice she loved so much was heard from the other side of the door, "No, it's me."

She froze, "Natsu? W-what's wrong?"

"I need to talk to you," he said lowly, her heart skipped a beat. "I can't talk to you right now." she answered, not even getting up from the bed and completely feeling bad about it. But she tried her best to shake it off.

"But I really need to say something. Open the door, Luce!"

"And I really can't talk to you right now! I'm not opening the door!"

"Luce! Open it!" she could hear his hand twisting the knob but she already locked it before. "No, just.. No."

"Luce!"

"No!"

She heard a sigh, before a shuffle from the other side, and before she knew it, he opened the door and walked inside, startling her. "How did you get in here?!"

He showed her a key, "It's my home, I have every extra keys for every room." She gasped, completely forgetting that fact and blood quickly rushed to her cheek. The blonde got up from her bed and twisted his body, pushing him out of the room.

"L-Luce!"

"No, get out! I can't talk right now!"

"But- "

"No buts! Get ouuut!"

"Lucy!"

"No! I need to think first, I have so many problems right now."

He stumbled a bit, "About what?"

"Everything – mostly you – just get out!"

He peeked at her from his shoulder, seeing her hand pushing him out, "About me?"

He smirked when she blushed redder than any humanly possible could contain, "Just get out!" he smiled and before he knew it, he turned around, caught her hand in his and leaned down, capturing her lips.

He heard her breath stuck in her throat and smiled on her lips, feeling her hand shyly gripped his and responded to the kiss. She tasted so sweet, like vanilla and he couldn't help but pressed harder, feeling her face grew warmer.

When he pulled away, watching as her eyelids fluttered open in a very beautiful way, he couldn't help but let out a 'Whoa' and smiled at her, the girl scowling at him. She opened her mouth to say something but he was quick to cup her chin in his and stop her lips with his thumb.

"Wait, don't say anything. It's my turn now." she blinked despite her red face and nodded slowly. He grinned and took a deep breath, closing his eyes, resting his forehead against hers. Gosh, he missed her being this close so much.

"I'm sorry. For everything, for the burned wood, the mayor, everything. I just… panicked because that guy was crushing you wrist, and he could've hurt you and I kinda just explode but I don't know why but I'm just so scared that something bad might happen to you. I mean, you did nothing to protect yourself or so what it seemed and I'm just so scared and I don't want to lose you and that proved that you're wrong with your theory that I didn't care about you because in fact, I do care. I care so much – I mean, if I don't care, I would just leave you there in their hands coz it's kinda you who walked away so Huckleberry won't affect me and I do care because you just kept popping in my mind and I won't forgive anyone who'll hurt you, in fact I'll hunt them down, I don't know why but I just need to feel you safe with me or else I'll – "

"Natsu!" she stopped him and smacked his thumb away from her lips, the young man opened one eye to see her irritated scowl.

And he was scared she might hate him even more.

"Why didn't you just say 'Sorry', idiot?!" she punched him in the chest playfully, a pout on her face and her face still tinted with pink. Natsu blinked at her and said, "Uh, is that mean I'm forgiven?"

She smiled at him, softly, he needed to remind himself to breath.

"Why wouldn't I? All I need is you to say sorry, and I admit I'm sorry for yelling at you, too."

He stared at her with a blink, "But.. you.. I…" Lucy placed her forefinger on his lips and grinned, "I forgive you, and I'm sorry, too."

It took him for a few seconds before a grin stretched on his face as he brought her into a tight embrace, sniffling her hair and placed a soft kiss on top of her head, causing her to blush but giggle nonchalantly.

"Thanks, I missed you…" he whispered, burying his nose to her hair, the woman leaned to his embrace, feeling his warmth again made her heart flutter. They stayed like that for a moment, comfortable in each other's embrace before Natsu pulled away.

"You tasted like vanilla."

Her face blushed once more and she looked away, "What's up with the kissing out of the blue?"

He grinned, "Can I do that again?" she nearly choked on her own spit at his words, "What? Why?"

"You know, for a reassurance that you forgive me." That was the lamest insult she ever heard, but Lucy found herself smiling at him. "So, may I kiss you again, Ms. Heartfilia?"

She peeked through his shoulder, glancing to right and left before facing him again, smiling wider. The blonde got to her tiptoes and cupped his face in her delicate hands.

"Just this once."

And with that, she kissed him again, feeling his own warm lips moving against hers softly, making her weak in the knee, luckily those arms around her waist helped her balancing herself.

The pair was enjoying their moment when suddenly a bubbly, "I'm home!" was heard.

And Lucy was fast to pull away, gave him one last peck, and pushed him out of the door, closing the door in front of his face. Before sliding her back down the door, losing her breath.

Letting a hand touched her still warm lips, she hugged her knees to her chest and closed her eyes, before a big, very big smile spread on her face. And Lucy Heartfilia ran to her bed, burying her face in the pillow to scream, squealing in happiness and ignoring the fact that her heart just made a very, very large understatement why she was feeling this, especially around him.

And she squealed again.

In front of her closed door, Natsu was still standing, hand on the wooden surface to help himself up.

"I'm home!" Wendy said again, snapping him out of his still breathless reverie. With that, the man grinned and realized what the heck was happening few seconds ago.

He kissed Lucy, he, Natsu Dragneel alias the Midnight Salamander, the pink haired fire mage with total idiocy, just kissed Lucy Heartfilia. The super beautiful celestial mage he began to love. And she kissed him back! The warmth and vanilla taste still lingered in his lips and he loved it very much.

Gosh, Life is beautiful.

"Natsu-nii?"

"Wendy!" he turned to her with the biggest smile she ever seen, kinda freaking her out, picking her up and spinning her around, the grin on his face grew bigger. The girl was too confused to do anything – and so what if she smelled vanillas around her brother – so she let him spinning her around like a mad man, before setting her down, picking Happy up and ruffled his fur on his head, and picked Charle up, hugging her with Happy's protesting voice in the background.

"What happen to you?" Charle asked, dusting herself from his hug but he ignored it.

"I just realized that life is so beautiful."

"Uh, is that mean I'm allowed to go to the job?"

Natsu grinned, "Sweetie, go as long as you want, I'm good here."

Wendy stared at him in horror, he CALLED HER SWEETIE!

"Uh, okay."

She stared in amazement as her insane – but super handsome – brother ran around the room, screaming how he loved his life, that big foolish grin on his face was still the same. What the heck happened. Just as she wondered, another squeal, matching his brother, came from Lucy's room.

Okay, that was weird.

* * *

**I still don't know how I should feel right now. I'm happy because of the hit 100 thingy, but...**

**I literally cried from the newest - temporary last episode I just watched today.. :'( I mean, it's just so cliffy and sad and frustrating and I already miss the anime and Natsu's voice - especially that - and everyone! QAQ Huwaa, it's unfaair! Now I hv nothing to watch *kicked***

**I just love FT so much x'D**

**So pwetty pwease leave a review minna, I love you guys so much xD**

**till next time~**

**-Nachii**


	10. Chapter 10

**TaDaa! I'm back! after a long rest and WB attack xD**

**Sorry for the late update, so very very really busy from all activities here OAO dun blame me, it's killing me too TT^TT**

**thanks for your reviews minna! I love them! and sorry for not replying, but just so you know that I LOVE THEM very much! xD so, thankies..**

**Anyway, let's just on to the story, here you go Huckleberry chapter 10, hope you lllliike iiit! ^^**

* * *

Chapter 10

Lucy scrunched her face up at the paper in her hand. It was the newspaper from Clover Town that Wendy brought as she came home this afternoon due to her job was in that town. There, in the front page, was the Mayor's round face so close to the camera lacryma that his nose stuck to it.

"_**The criminal in the outskirt of Acalypha." **_The text said, she could see Midnight behind him with a bit of burned mark on his hair and cloak. Criminal? CRIMINAL? THE HECK?! She really needed to chuck Natsu's stink sock in his throat when she sees him again one day, which she wished, not so soon.

Groaning, she ripped the paper from the newspaper and crumpled it in her palm, before throwing it to the blazing fireplace in front of her.

"Lucy-san?" upon hearing her name, the blonde turned to see Wendy crawled onto the couch beside her, smiling in apologizing manner, "I shouldn't have brought the newspaper, should I?"

Lucy smiled at the young Dragneel, "It's fine. I'm just feeling stuffy reading that article. I mean – who does he think he is? Okay, he's the Mayor – so what? But still, he doesn't have the right to call me a criminal without knowing the real situation! Damn that short plush piggy bank."

Wendy giggled at her sister figure, "Okay, I really shouldn't have bring that."

The celestial mage huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she turned to her side and faced the girl fully. "Never mind that. Tell me about your mission."

The blunette blinked, "It's just a usual mission."

"No it's not. It's a mission with Romeo-kuuun~" she teased, smiling in satisfaction as the girl blushed, backing away from her. "So spill it out at once, sweetie."

_Sweetie._

_Sweetie._

_When did she hear the word before?_

Her face paled as she remember two days ago when Natsu was acting all crazy and called her that. the way he said that word was so girly and feminine and such that it sent shiver along her arms. It was surprising that her brother's feminine part was freaking her out. She meant – really, really FREAKING HER OUT.

"Hello? Wendy? Wendy are you okay?"

She blinked at went back to realization as Lucy waved her hand in front of her face. A concern look on her face as Wendy laughed nervously, "It's nothing, really. It was just a mission.."

"He asked YOU of all people to accompanied him to the mission, with you. Together." Lucy added, smiling knowingly.

"But Charle and Happy were there too!"

"Still, he was practically asking you out."

"Oh a mission! Gosh, Lucy-saaan!" Lucy smirked in victory at the darkened blush on her face. Ha! Now she knew how she felt every time everyone teased her and Natsu. "You definitely lllike him!"

"Well, I do not 'don't' like him, but.. Uhm.." the blonde laughed, clutching her stomach at the girl while Wendy pouted, looking away from the older female. Finally stopping, she wiped her tears and asked again, "Well, did something happen in the mission, a glance, knowing look, holding hand or hug, anything?"

"That sounds like what you always do with my brother." The blunette gave her a look while she gawked, face burning slightly. "Never mind with me and Natsu, I'm asking you here!"

Back to realization, the little mage shifted uncomfortably on her spot, tapping her forefingers together. "Well, I can't say that nothing entirely happen – Don't stare at me like that!" she screeched in embarrassment at Lucy's excited and intense look she gave her.

"So.."

"Well, we sorta hold hand sometimes and he always managed to help me out but above all that, nothing really happen.."

Lucy squealed, "He holds your hand! That's a progress! He definitely likes you!"

Wendy blinked, "He does?"

"Yes! See? He held your hand and always got your back! It showed that he cared and he liked you!"

The little girl tilted her head to the side, "So when a boy hold your hand most times, it means he likes you?"

"Uh huh!"

She grinned, "Then it means my Natsu-nii likes you!"

"Yea – Wait, WHAT? It's not about us! It's about you guys!"

"But – " A look. Wendy sighed in defeat. "Fine, anyway how was he in home?"

"WHAT? WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING."

"…So he didn't bother you while I was away?"

"…Oh that, yeah – I mean, ahaha.. Well, nothing really happen except that he trashed the house even more."

The young Dragneel fell silent for a few seconds, blank face stared at the blushing face of the ex-heiress. "O-kay."

…

"So how did you and him make up yesterdays?"

Lucy blushed harder, shaking her head back and forth, "It was just an apology."

"Really? But Natsu-nii was acting weird. He got all this crazy with a big grin on his face and spinning around happily, but I considered that okay coz he always acted like that around you, but he seemed happier that time, spinning like a Merry-Go-Round."

A soft smile played on her lips, "Really?"

"Mm, before he collapsed by motion sickness."

She sweat dropped, sighing at the hopeless boy. "He really is in love with you.."

Another sigh leaved her lips as she opened her eyes, gazing into the other brown eyes in front of her. "Sweetie, that's sweet, but I can't believe that until he shows me by himself."

"Show you?" Wendy asked, not understanding. "Yup. Sometimes, words aren't suffice. You'll get it someday, with Romeo or anyone." The air mage was about to argue back, but decided to leave that. "But what if that guy doesn't love us back?" she whispered, eyes wide.

"If it's Romeo you're talking about, nah, he likes you. I can see that. You both will be a very cute couple!"

"Oh no no. She's not having a boyfriend just yet, or ever." Another voice interrupted and the couch bounced as the familiar handsome pink haired mage plopped himself beside Lucy, staring at his sister dangerously. Lucy gasped and turned around.

"Natsu!"

He crooked an eyebrow at her, "What?"

"How much did you hear?"

He smirked, "Not much, something about Romeo and MY sister." The blonde sent him a doubting look, before turning back to Wendy. "Don't listen to him Wendy. You're free to choose your boyfriend."

"She's fifteen for God's sake! She's too young to have a boyfriend!" Natsu shot back, flailing his arms to the air. Wendy gasped and glared at him. "Too young?! Well you're too old to not have a girlfriend!"

For some reason, Lucy blushed.

"Well, I will have a girlfriend soon!"

Breathe Lucy, breathe.

"You do know that soon means soon, right?"

Oh Holy crap Lucy breaaaathe!

"I'll prove my words to you if that's what you mean!"

Dammit Natsu! Can't you see that smirk on her innocent face! Stop talking would ya!

"Really? Then I dare you to ask Lu – "

"OKAY. Who wants dinner?" Clearly not the best distracting words ever, Lucy, but so what? At least she tried. The flammable boy beside her was completely distracted by her offers that he jumped and pleaded to her to make dinner already.

Lucy sighed before turning to a pouting Wendy. "What was that for? I almost got you guys together!"

The blonde giggled and ruffled her hair, "Nu uh, I don't like it that way."

"But Lucy-san – "

Wendy's complain was stopped when Lucy leaned down to her face and smile, "If it makes you feel better, I do love your brother." She whispered. The girl's eyes widened before a grin stretched on her face.

"You can help me out by keeping that as a secret for a while." The blonde winked, making the grin widened at her words. Wendy watched as the young woman walked out of the room to the kitchen as saw a glimpse of Natsu grinning at her, wrapping his arms around her from behind and startling her.

Just a moment, few steps and they'd get together.

* * *

Mirajane Strauss frowned at the news Lucy told her.

"So the Clover Town's Mayor reported you again?"

Lucy nodded weakly, banging her head on the barstool. "Luckily Clover Town is really isolated, the outer Town rarely hear news from that town."

"I guess Master is right, Lucy. You need a disguise." Lisanna said, resting her chin on her palm. The blonde in topic just groaned under her breath, half agreeing half refusing. "What disguise? Wig? Glasses and mustache? Why not change me into a man entirely?"

The sisters exchanged glasses. "I guess a wig will do." Lucy's head cranked up to see her blue haired best friend approaching. Juvia and Erza trailing behind her.

"But I don't wanna hide my hair! It's what makes me a Heartfilia.." she mumbled, the girls sighing.

"Juvia thinks that's why Lucy needs to cover it up."

"But – "

"Come on, we'll help you find a great wig." Erza said, taking her arm with a smile. Sending a look at the other girls, they gave her knowing look, which creeping Lucy out for some reason.

"IT'S SHOPPING TIME!"

* * *

"I wanna go home…" Natsu pleaded, looking at Romeo, Gray and Gajeel in front of him with a bored look. The ice mage and the purple fire mage sighed, sipping their smoothie.

"We wanna go home too, but Erza-nee told us to wait here with you."

"Why can't I just go home?" Natsu asked again. They were currently sitting on a café beside the store Lucy and the others were shopping at. The she demon told Romeo, Gray and Gajeel to wait with Natsu so at least he stayed on where he was, until their shopping time was over. But waiting for girls when they were shopping was a torture for them!

"Your amulet, remember? You don't want Lucy-nee to die by suffocation, right?"

The rosette sighed in defeat upon hearing the pretty blond's name. "Fine."

"Awe, is little Natsu having a weak spot that is his sweet beautiful Luce?"

"First, shut up, your voice sounds like a hungered half dead dog. Second, don't call her that. Third, says the guy who agreed to this coz his sweet Juvia was asking him!" the frienemy glared at each other, sparks of flames and ice could be seen.

"Shut up freaks. I'm having a headache here."

Natsu glared at the metal head beside Romeo. "Why? Do you need a medicine, Gajeel-darling? Want Levy to cure you~? Come here so I can treat my sweet piece of metal from heaven until he gets bette – "

_Smack_

"WHATTHEHECKWASTHATFOR?!" the oldest Dragneel shouted, tackling the pierced man to the ground, throwing punches and insults.

"Idiots." Gray said, face palming, before got pulled to the circle of fight by Natsu. On the table, sat alone, Romeo groaned an buried his face into the table, wishing this day would be over quickly.

"So, what color should we try first?" Mira asked, tapping her fingers while Lucy looked disinterested.

"Try green." Lisanna suggested, handing her a wig. Lucy didn't bother to check it as she fixed it to her blonde locks. Handing her a mirror, Lisanna smiled in amusement at her new look.

And Lucy's face paled.

"I-I look like Medusa!"

Erza and Juvia exchanged glances, "But it does look good on you."

She stared at her friends crazily. "I have snakes on my hair. SNAKES ON MY HAIR."

Levy laughed, "Okay, next! Try black."

Lucy quickly put the green wig off and try the black. It needed time to finally adjusting to the fake hair before she saw the mirror.

"I'm a corpse. A CORPSE."

The black hair completely not suit to her pale skin as it made her face looked lifeless and weak. Mira sighed and pulled the wig off of her and handed her a red and yellow wig. Lucy stared at the white head with what the heck look.

"It's a clown's wig, Mira."

"You figured!" she grinned.

"…"

"You…don't like it, do you?"

"I'm going on A JOB. NOT A CIRCUS!"

"Maybe you'll earn more money by, you know, performing—Ahaha.. Okay." The takeover mage discarded the wig. Lucy cried silently, cursing the damn mayor and whoever out there inventing wigs.

She looked to the outside, whimpering when she realized she missed her pink haired crazy stuck together best friend.

Two hours later, and still no news that the girls would stop.

"Awe, look at that! White suits you well!" Mira said in awe, wiping her happy tears. Lucy looked even more bored, staring at the oldest Strauss. "For some reason, she looks like a Strauss." Lisanna gasped in realization at Levy's words, yanking Lucy to her feet and spinning her around.

"You're right! You're right! Lucy Strauss, my that's a great name, Lucy! we'll be sisters! And I'll be Natsu's sister in law!"

"Whoa whoa, What does Natsu have to do with it?" Lucy asked wide eyed, pulling the long white wig off from her hair and sighed. "We've tried these for two hours! Just for wigs!"

Erza hummed in response, "I still like that green Medusa wig."

"Juvia likes that blue puddle wig."

"Nah, Lu-chan looks great in that spiky yellow wig." Levy mumbled, lifting the said wig by her fingers.

"Well yeah, except that I look like Naruto in it."

"But everyone loves Naruto!"

Lucy face palmed, "Can I go home now? Pwetty pwease?"

"Why? Miss your Natsu already?" Lisanna teased, smirking evilly at her best friend while the blond shot her a glare.

* * *

Natsu tapped his fingers on the wooden table impatiently, scratched all over his body due to the usual fight he got with his so called best friends slashed rival. Gray and Gajeel were in the same state, but Romeo was the worse.

The side of his hair was burnt, while the other side was frozen and a purple circle placed neatly on his right eye.

"I'm a fire mage, and I'm burnt. Ironic." He muttered, looking bored as he shot looks to his brother figure. "Well, I never thought you'd join in! You didn't seem like a type."

"I was PLANNING to separate you off, Natsu-nii." He groaned, planting his face to the table.

"Che, considering someone like him to be your idol, you got a bad taste, kid." Gajeel said, crossing his arms over his chest, didn't even flinch at the glare Natsu was giving him.

"He idolized me coz of my awesomeness, metal butt! You just jealous coz no one likes yo – wait, LEVY DOES like you. She's the one having bad taste."

"Shut up Salamander, I clearly pitying Bunny Girl that she needs to stuck with YOU of all people."

"Why you little piece of rusty useless hammer head!"

"Well at least my head had manly color to it, not some girly pink cotton candy like hair!"

"Are you blind? IT'S RED."

"That's clearly a pink, idiot!"

"It's red you – "

Natsu stopped his train of curses at the sudden wind passed them, his eyes widening in size.

"Ha! Loss at words, pinky?"

To Gajeel's surprise, he ignored it, the rosette's head snapped behind to the crowd, his eyes searched frantically among the people. His expression was hard, onyx orbs narrowed at something unknown.

"Natsu?" Gray called, raising a brow.

"What's wrong Natsu-nii?" the black haired teen asked, his eyes looking at Natsu's trail of sight. Finding nothing that caught his interest, he looked at the man once more.

"Whatcha lookin' for, hot head?"

"Did you smell that?" Gajeel fell silent at the sudden question the fire mage said, quickly sniffling the air. "All I smell is you guys' stinky breath and people, what did you smell?"

He was silent for a moment, "They're here."

Coming to their senses, they stood up, looking around. "Where?"

"It's fast, too quick." Natsu answered, his eyes closed, taking the oxygen. When he opened them again, he could see a flash of yellow light running around, too quickly for his enhanced senses. When the smell faded, he clenched his fist tightly. His eyes darted to the shop beside the café, seeing the girls were still shopping, bright smile and shining brown orbs came into view.

"Lucy."

* * *

"I think we got the right one." Erza smiled in satisfaction. The others nodded, smiling at Lucy who wore a shoulder length blonde hair with wavy end.

"This is my real hair."

Their smile faded into a groan, slumping to the floor with tons of wigs around them. "What should we do? We can't find a right one for you Lucy.." the blonde sighed and crouched to her friends. "It's fine, I can just buy it some other time. Alone." She added the last part when her friends' eyes started to sparkle hopefully.

"Let's just go back to the guild, then." Juvia suggested, standing up and dusting herself from the hairs stuck to her skirt. The cashier girls stared at them and sighed, already knowing that they wouldn't clean their own ruckus.

Just as Levy was about to open the door, Gray, Gajeel and Romeo stopped them, pushing the girls back into the store and causing few racks fell over.

And the cashiers stared at them in horror.

"Ow! Gajeel! What on earth – "

"Stay inside, shrimp." The solid script mage stared at him with mouth agape. "What? Who are you to ordering me around?!"

"Wait, Levy-nee, it's urgent." Romeo stood between the pair, hands in front of his chest in defending manner. The girls stared at them with confused glance. Lucy silently counted the males in front of her, seeing none pink hair in sight.

"Where's Natsu?"

Gray sighed, "That's the problem." The key user shot him a look, urged him to explain.

"He smelled Oracion Seis here, and he's following them." Her eyes widened. "What? With Huckleberry on him?"

The ice mage nodded, "And he told us to keep you hidden from them."

* * *

That figure was quick.

Like, damn quick.

Natsu Dragneel stopped in his track, losing his prey. Closing his eyes, once more he sniffed the air, sensing that familiar scent he familiarized in his track of robbery from the Dragon Artifacts.

"Where is he.."

He knew it was the most stupidest idea to follow his sworn enemy to the outskirt of the town of Magnolia, one of the biggest city in the Fiore, with Huckleberry hanging around his neck while the female amulet were a mile away.

But Yajima-san told them to make a research, right?

This was his way of research.

Opening his eyes in a split second as the smell came back, the fire mage ran towards the scent, making his cape flapping against the wind. He's somewhere, somewhere near. All he could see around was trees, bushes, and blue sky. He was already in the outskirt. While Lucy was in the town center. Far, far away from here.

He needed to be quick.

There, he could see him, a flash of yellow and black.

And that man stopped.

Stopping in his track about twenty steps from him, Natsu looked at the man with narrowed eyes. spiky, razor sharp hair, pointy chin and eyes hidden by black glasses. Definitely not Midnight, but definitely an Oracion Seis. The smell grew stronger as their distance decreased.

A smirk brought to his smirk, "A visitor, eh?"

"What are you doing in this town?" he asked instead, causing that smirk to grow wider. "Why does it concern you, stranger? Unless – " Natsu's eyes widened as the man disappeared from sight and reappear beside him.

" – You're not a stranger at all." The rose haired mage quickly spinning on his heel and jumped away from the man, feeling extra cautious now.

"Nice scarf." The man murmured, eyeing the scarf hidden under his cape, but still giving it a peek. Gritting his teeth, the fire mage growled, "Should I take that as a compliment?"

"Maybe." He answered, Natsu could feel the piercing stare from him behind his glasses. "It looks familiar."

"Remember anything specific?" the runner stared at him for a moment before his lips formed a thin line as Natsu kept gazing at those feet able to form such speed.

With that speed he could easily flap Natsu's cape form his head.

But he didn't.

He didn't have to and Natsu knew it.

"I'll ask one more time. What is Oracion Seis doing here?"

Now that smirk was back, irritating him. "Looking for someone."

The rosette's eyes narrowed even more, his expression full of anger. "And who might that be?"

"You know very well who I am talking about – " Natsu almost cheered in satisfaction at his shocked expression as he launched himself at him, hands gripping the man's throat.

"You dare to touch her, and I swear you won't see the next sunlight."

Even between his tight grip, the man was chuckling mockingly, "She's someone special, eh? That will just make it more – " twisting Natsu's hand in non humanly speed, he frees himself from the fire mage's fury.

" – interesting." His eyes watched as Natsu stumbled a bit by the push when he twisted him. The oldest Dragneel turned around and glared at him. "I won't let you."

"So you're willing to cost your parents' treasure for saving your girl?"

"Well," Natsu smirked, "I won't let you have both."

"We'll see about that, Mr. Dragneel," he whispered loud enough for the rosette to hear as he punched him in the gut, sending him to the nearest tree. But Natsu was quick to pushed himself forward by his feet and landed a fiery punch to the runner's face, sending him to the rocks behind.

Just after he punched the Oracion Seis guy, the effect of long distance in Huckleberry started to begin. He felt the tightening feeling in his lungs as the oxygen around him felt like they were dissipated. He gasped and clutched his chest silently, cursing under his breath.

He bit his lip at the chuckle from the rocks, hearing the sound of wind once more as he felt the man's presence beside him. "Feeling the effect already?"

"You.." he gritted his teeth as his nose scrunched in frustration. "I'll leave you for now, Mr. Dragneel." His head shot up at that, despite his dying lungs. "Why don't you bring me to your boss now?"

"Trust me, I'd love to kill you now, but that would kill the fun."

Natsu's vision started to blur as he asked once more, "Why would you go so much for such artifacts? There are more things much valued." He could hear a sound of crumbled paper from the man as he bent down to put the paper into Natsu's pocket and whispered.

"But none like YOUR Dragon artifacts."

And his presence disappeared as Natsu collapsed to the ground on his knees, the Huckleberry burning in protest and urged to meet its mate. Struggling to keep inhaling, he was about to fall from suffocation when something held his shoulder his eyes saw a blur of blonde.

"Luce?" he whispered.

Lucy smiled, pulling her amulet out of her shirt and Natsu's out of his top, sticking them together. Just then the fire mage's lungs started to loosen, allowing him to breathe deeply, panting by the lack of air. The blonde watched as he sat up, coughing and clutching his head. She frowned and massaged his head, her hand cupping his cheek, smiling as he leaned against her touch.

After recovering his composure, he gripped the hand on his cheek and opened his eyes, looking at the worried blonde, "Thanks." He mumbled, snuggling to her hand, but it soon changed to a wince when the blonde pinched his cheek, hard.

"What were you thinking, idiot?"

"Ow Luuce!" she glared at him for a moment, making him cower in fear, before wrapping her arms around his neck tightly, catching him off surprise. "Uh, Lucy are you okay? Coz you just hit me and now hugging me is just really weird."

"Oh shut up." She told him, feeling relief washed over her upon seeing that he was fine. Natsu was fine. For a moment Natsu was hesitating, before wrapping his arms around her waist in return, breathing her scent deeply and stifled his laughter, "Man, you are really weird." He murmured against her neck.

"Natsu! Making your girl worry is not manly!" a voice interrupted and they pulled away slowly to see Lisanna and Mira stared at them with mischievous smirk. Lucy shot them a glare while Natsu looked at them weirdly.

"Yeah yeah, sure." He responded scratching his cheek. He also hated making Lucy worry, though. Lucy's mouth agape at him.

"I don't think Flame Head is even a man." Gray commented, following the girls from behind and sent Natsu a smirk. The fire mage glared at him and was about to argue back when he heard another crumpled of paper from his pocket and remembered the runner's words from earlier, for a few minutes, he fell silent.

He went back to realization when Lucy called his name. "Yeah?"

"What happened with that Oracion Seis guy?" he grinned innocently at her, standing up and offered his hand for her. "I'll tell you at home! Come on! Let's go back to the guild! I'm starving!" with that he ran first with a big grin on his face, teasing Gray, Gajeel and Romeo that they couldn't catch him up and causing them to follow him as Lucy stared at her handsome best friend with a frown.

"Lu-chan?"

"He's hiding something." She said without looking at the girls, Lisanna smiled at her, "Man, you're even better than me on finding out his secret." Lucy ignored the white for a moment, walking forward.

"Well, let's just go home first."

* * *

For some reason, the words in the paper didn't surprise Natsu.

_**The last Exhibition from Oracion Seis**_

_**Held in Magnolia Second Town Square **_

_**Will be opened Tomorrow at 10**_

_**Presenting : The Dragon Crown, The last piece of the Dragon Artifacts.**_

Natsu stared at the paper for a moment. The second Town Square was near the outskirt. For some reason the Mayor built two towns squares. But that wasn't the problem.

The Dragon Crown was the most valuable artifacts among other artifacts. It was the artifact Igneel Dragneel first found. His dad's first treasure.

The oldest Dragneel sighed, laying down on the bed but silent enough not to wake his sister, Lucy and the cats. He looked to his side where Lucy was laying, being snuggled by Wendy and the cats. His eyes wandered back to the runner from this afternoon.

Should he tell Lucy? Some part wanted to, but most part of him knew how she would react after hearing this. He knew this was a trap, but it also an opportunity for him to know more about them, about Oracion Seis, the artifacts and his parents disappearance. And moreover, he was the Midnight Salamander! He should be able to do this. He should, right?

The rosette's eyes darted back to the paper. His orbs stayed on the word 'Artifact'. What was so special about these artifacts? Why did they want it so bad? What did the runner mean by 'None like your artifacts'? It was like he literally saying that the artifact belonged to Natsu's family.

Why would they want to get Lucy more than want to get him?

"It's so confusing.." he groaned, he needed Lucy's smart brain now. But if he told Lucy, she would insist going with him everywhere, and he didn't want to cause her to get hurt..

Natsu rolled on his back and faced the sleeping blonde he loved so deeply and sighed once more. He bent down and placed a soft kiss on her forehead before standing up and crushed the paper in his palm before setting it on fire, his eyes waiting it turned to ashes.

Looking at Lucy's delicate and peaceful face once more, he knew.

He should go get that Crown next Midnight.

* * *

**Puuh, it's done. Yay me! xD**

**sososo, Natsu's gonna go into his Midnight Salamander mode in the next chappie, or not? It's a secret xD I'm still planning all the things up. I should've update this yesterday, but I just finished it minutes ago, so yeah. I don't know, but, it's just getting harder to write this story, but I'm doing my best and I hope you guys like it xD**

**So, pwetty pwease leave a review minna, I love you guys so much! xD**

**till next time~**

**-Nachii**


	11. Chapter 11

**Whoop, I've been missing for few weeks, huh? Sorry, once more, my school is busying my butts off and my lovely science club needed to prepare for our inauguration day, senior's thingies -_- and it seems like WB loves me so much xD**

**Thanks to all the reviewers, I love you guys so much! here, let Nachi hug you each xDD seriously, I'm nothing without you all ^^**

**So, here you go chapter 11 of Huckleberry. Hope you like it~**

* * *

Chapter 11

"GO AWAY."

That gruff voice was literally shaking him up but he kept standing on his place.

Natsu's a Dragneel – and he wouldn't run away like a coward like Gray (or so did he think) would.

Okay, maybe he was being a bit over dramatic, but who on Earth did not fear Porlyusica? She might be the doctor of the guild, Wendy's idol, Master's best friend, the best doctor beside his mom he ever knew, but this old lady was one hell of a scary witch.

"Pleasepleaseplease? You're the one I know will able to help me." He begged, clasping his hands together in front of the lady who was glaring at him in front of her cottage in the wood.

"Look, Dragneel boy, this is five in the morning and you know how I hate humans – in front of my door – knocking my door without manner and you're expecting me to help you?!"

Natsu stared at her, "Yes."

_Twitch._

"GO AWAY YOU PIECE OF FLAMING MEAT!" she raised her broom with fiery eyes and glared at the cowering boy and Natsu was freaking out and shocked in the same time coz the heck! That lady got even cooler insult that Gray's!

No time for that.

"But Porlyusica-san, I really, really need your help, pleaaaase…" the pink haired lady face palmed, pinching the bridge of her nose and groaned. If just this boy wasn't a Dragneel, and not a part of Fairy Tail, she could just crack his skull with her…

"Please?"

She looked up at him with bored eyes. "Let me get this straight. You, want a spell – potion – anything, that can hold the Huckleberry effect for a moment so you can go to some freaky risky expo to get your Dragon Crown without dying from suffocation." She stated bluntly. He nodded in excitement.

"That sounds cool, right?" he asked with sparkling eyes.

Porlyusica looked at the man before adding, "Did you tell that blonde girl?"

His grin faltered, face hardened. "I wouldn't go straight to you if I did."

"Then, that sounds selfish." A pause, Natsu was surprised.

"So you're just going to leave her without saying anything to go get your Crown? That makes you sounds like a coward. She matters to you more than that, you know that right?"

_Well, duh!_

"I know she does."

The morning air around the wood never felt this tight. It felt suffocating. Maybe the Huckleberry started to feel the absence of its mate, maybe because Natsu didn't feel like breathing.

Maybe the words just stabbing him in the heart.

He didn't know, but the lady was right.

"If you're done with the thinking – "

He cut her off before she had the chance to finish, "I just doesn't want bad things happen to her anymore.."

The lady stared, "What?"

"Her mother died because of my parents' job, her past wasn't so pleasing and she was alone before her carrier got in. She was… Lucy was having a perfect a life there before I came to along…"

The pink haired witch's eyes softened. That confident stupid-faced man was long gone, now standing before her was that man who held protectiveness, affection, and worries to his best friend, the one that showed love in his eyes. The one with his father's face and power, and his mother's tenderness.

"This is my problem, I have to be a Dragneel in this period of time, and I have to take what's mine." He said, true intention in his voice, fist clenched tightly. The old woman thought he was going to stay melancholic, but was shocked to see the infectious grin on his face.

"Luce just doesn't need to be sad anymore."

She sighed, "What if you get caught? She'll be even more sadder."

"What? Are you expecting some babies to catch the Midnight Salamander?" he smirked. She rolled her eyes at him. "Fine, but no matter how great the tool is, it can't hold the effect for a long time. The maximum time is thirty minutes."

His eyes sparkled and he swore he was about to hug her if she didn't hold that scary glare and k-k-k-knife in her hands.

"Think you can get the Crown in thirty minutes?" she asked, a little hesitation in her voice.

"Even quicker." He grinned.

* * *

It was on the way to the guild when Natsu's hand grabbed hers from behind, stopping her. Lucy turned around almost too quickly, looking at him questioningly. "What's wrong?"

Hearing the lack of footsteps behind them, Wendy and the cats paused midway and turned towards the pair, raising their brow. Natsu grinned at them widely. "You guys just go ahead, I need to do something."

Lucy tugged on her hand, raising her brow confusedly, "What about me?" he looked down towards the blonde, "You – " he linked their fingers together, securely, firmly, gently. " – Are coming with me." He sent his sister one last look, waving his hand reassuringly.

"Don't worry about us!"

"Oh oh! Will there be a confession?" Wendy asked excitedly, clapping her hand while Lucy gaped at her, face burning. "W-Wendy!"

"Oh! I know! A proposal!"

"What the – Natsu say something!" the blonde wailed, looking at him in despair, ignoring the butterflies in her stomach or her squealing inner mind.

"Ooh! I can imagine flowers and bouquets and fireworks and – "

"WHOA, look at the time! My, you must be late for your and Romeo's dat – friendly meeting, yeah, friendly. Go ahead, Happy, Charle, look after her! See you later! Have a nice day, love you sis!" the fire mage said quickly, pushing the girl to the direction of the Guild. Lucy could make out some of her protests, but her mind was still at daze. The heck had just happened?

Whatever.

She jumped when Natsu called her name, his warm hand linked back with her smaller ones. "What's up with the spacing out?" he asked, chuckling. She shook her head, finding no words to retort back. "Anyway, what is it you need to do?" she asked instead, falling into steps with him to the other direction.

"Dunno, where do you want to go?" she looked at him as if he was crazy. "Really? You dragged me without even clear destination? You're the worst kidnapper ever! WORST." She complained, earning another chuckle from his throat as Lucy glared at him.

"Natsu!" she raised her voice, pouting. The man took a deep breath to stop his laughter before grinning cheekily at her. "You know, I haven't properly apologized to you.." Lucy looked at him in surprise, her eyes widening in size.

"Wh-what?" she asked for reassurance, not believing what he said just now.

"You remember our fight few days ago? The day when we ki – "

"ALRIGHT." She cut, her face's temperature raised few degrees. "I remember, and I do recall you apologized to me that time."

"Spontaneously." He added, raising his palm. The blonde blinked in curiosity. "That's why I want to apologize to you more properly now."

Lucy blinked, once. Twice. Thrice. "What?"

Natsu groaned at her blank face. Was it that unthinkable for him to do something nice for a while?

"My point is Luce," he said, taking a shortcut. "Will you go on a date with me? As in an apology for me being a…me?"

Another blink. "Who are you?"

"Lucy!" he whined. What the heck was she saying? Here he was, swallowing his pride to ask her out – man his heart does beat faster and he could feel his cheek warmed up, autumn started to finish, yeah, that must be it – and all she did was questioning his whole being?

Damn, just great.

Suddenly she giggled, catching him off guard. She giggled, GIGGLED. He was feeling a bit offended and was about to retort something, when the giggle stopped and she cupped his face in her palm, giving him a peck on his lips.

Oh, wow.

When she pulled away, her face was shining brightly, red cheeks stretched into a beautiful smile he began to love. And tint of pink was visible on Natsu's cheek.

"Um.." he opened his mouth.

She smiled, "That was so sweet of you." He chuckled at her words, his hand covered hers on his cheeks. "Is that a yes?" she looked at him in disbelief, rubbing her thumb over his sculpted jaw, the smile was still on her face.

"I'd love to."

* * *

"So, what kind of spell casted on you today?" she asked, licking her ice cream cone as they walked alongside a beautiful lake in the city's outskirt. The place was isolated, walls of plants hid the entrance of the park. The autumn leaved scattered everywhere, but it just made the place looked more beautiful.

"Was that really that out of character?" he pouted, his arms created a pillow behind his head.

"Oh, I heard about this meteor crashe – "

"Luce! It's still me!" she stopped her rambling and looked at him, a small smile formed. "I know,"

He was turning around fast enough so the lady didn't see his pinked face. There was just something in that smile, something that made him want to pull her close, and he was beginning to give up trying to resist that.

"But this lake is really beautiful." She commented, shaking him back to Earthland. Natsu followed her movement as she turned so her back faced him, her arms stretched and a happy smile played on her lips.

"Yeah, you're the third girl I brought here." She opened her eyes, looked at him in confusion. "Third?"

Natsu shrugged, "The first and second were Wendy and my mother. That, if you count mom as a girl." she rolled her eyes, sighing in relief quietly. He smirked at that, "What? You thought it was someone else?"

"Who knows?" she replied. The rosette shook his head, "Nah, I mean, you wouldn't let anyone touch your keys, because that's special – "

"I let you touch them, though." She mused.

"I'm your best friend, silly, of course you let me."

"Lisanna is your best friend, why didn't you let her come here?" he thought for a moment, before grinning. "Nah, she'll booze it up to everyone else, I don't wanna wake up one day with everyone knowing this place." The blonde giggled at his words.

"How do you know I won't tell this secret place to anyone?" she dared, smirking. He grinned, "You won't. I can feel that."

Absentmindedly, she rubbed her amulet, smiling at him. "But it's my turn to pick a gossip this week."

"Your turn to what?"

"Oh! I can tell the girls your embarrassing facts!"

He gasped, "You won't." she laughed, running around, "Watch me." He laughed, chasing her between the trees with falling orange leaves around them, a big smile on his lips as the girl's laughed got louder, her slim legs made moves to hide behind the big trunks of the trees.

Like that would help her.

Their tag games continued as the sunlight peeked from the gap the leaved created. The leaves stuck to their hair, her coat, and his scarf, but they didn't care. It was cold, sure it was. The breeze was still there, but their small distance, their shy contact, it made everything warm. Really warm.

The key user gasped as wrong hands wrapped around her waist from behind, caging her from her hide and seek game. She laughed and struggled to get free, but when a dragon got his princess, do you think he would let go. Hell no.

"Hey! Using your nose is cheating!" she squeaked, half glaring at him. "There's no rule." He replied, sticking his tongue out. After a few moment of struggling, she gave up and huffed, turning around so they face the lake again.

They stood there for a moment, catching their breath and admiring the soft riddles on the water. It was so quiet, so peaceful, so different from the busy street of the downtown of Magnolia. So different from those time they ran from the guards, from the Clover's Mayor, from Oracion Seis.

"Thanks, for bringing me here." She whispered, patting the arm around her waist. She could feel him smiling against her hair. "Too bad it's autumn, it will be more wonderful in spring."

"Really?"

"Yeah, let's go here again when spring starts. All the flowers will bloom." He grinned at her, making her eyes sparkle. "You promise?"

His grin transformed into a smile, "Promise." And they went back to the lake in front of them.

"I wish it can stay like this forever." Natsu tightened his hold around her waist, burying his face in her shoulder at Lucy's voice. She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes. She smiled when he mumbled against her neck, "Me too."

_**Time now: 3 pm.**_

_**Time remain until midnight: 9 hours.**_

* * *

Night.

It was, already night. Dark, peaceful, no sound was heard. The Dragneel Residence was quiet, Wendy was in her room with Happy and Charle. Lucy got into her room two hours ago. Everyone was fast asleep.

Except him.

Natsu watched as the moonlight shined to her face, making it glowing. Her silky blonde hair fell to her face, but he didn't move to brush it away, afraid it might wake her up. Taking another glances at the girl he loved, the rosette grabbed his cloak, and the bottle from Porlyusica.

Opening the cap, his eyes narrowed at the green liquid in the small bottle. Without making any sound, he brought Lucy's amulet out from her grasp and pour half of the liquid to the amulet, making it glow for a moment before went back to normal, and did the same to his amulet.

Thirty minutes, he only got thirty minutes.

Kissing her forehead softly, Natsu dashed out of the house.

The outside air was chilly. Everything was a complete dark, but his good eyesight made it better.

To be honest, he didn't want to do this. Leaving Lucy to collect the last piece of the artifacts, without telling her anything, made him feel like a jerk, an irresponsible guy, and knowing it was like betraying Lucy, the girl he loved, made it twice worse.

One hop along the roofs.

What would happen next? Would he make it to the expo? What if it was a trap? Was he going to make it? Natsu didn't know. He didn't even know what would happen if he got caught. What strategy would he use?

Another hop.

He didn't even know Oracion Seis that well. He only recognized that guy he met in the forest – Sunset? Or was it Twilight? – and that quick guy from before. Oh, not to mention that pink haired girl with the maid outfit…

What?

Natsu blinked back to reality seeing a very familiar spirit in front of him, his mouth agape.

"Virgo – " shit, he couldn't stop, his feel made a hop –

"Sorry, Natsu-sama." He gasped, and. "SPICA HOLE!" a hole formed on the roof and Natsu was forced in, he could feel his body being rolled, pulled, to the never-ending tunnel like a coaster, but his mind was in another world.

Wha – Vir…go?

When he felt a push to his back, the rosette was once again forced out by the mysterious force and he landed on his butt on the ground just beside the roof he was hopping on, with an 'OOPH'.

Virgo came out from the hole second after, her emo-less face remained the same. She bowed in front of him in a polite manner, "Was it hurt, Natsu-sama? You may forgive me if you want."

Natsu stared at her in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"

Footsteps was heard from behind, but the fire mage didn't even turn to see who it was. The scent was too familiar, strawberry scented with a mix of vanilla beneath it, all too familiar, all too confusing.

Virgo bowed, but he wasn't sure anymore if it was at him or the girl behind him. When a soft, "Thanks Virgo." was heard, a sigh escaped his lips and he craned his neck to the back, seeing Lucy there in her pajamas with an expressionless face.

"Luce.."

She scowled at him, "I can't believe you." He stood up and dusted his cape, letting the cloak fell from his handsome face. "What are you doing here?"

"Definitely stopping you from digging your own grave, baka!"

He chuckled at her. Despite his worries, slight fear, anxiety that she knew his plan, he was super happy to see her, but it was not the right time. "Who told you?"

"WHO TOLD ME?! Do you think you can hide this…thing – plan… from me?! How stupid can you get?!" she screeched, planting her hands on her hips, glaring dangerously at him.

"I'm not stupid, you're just too smart." He mused, but the girl wasn't in the mood to buy things like that. She wasn't mad, angered maybe, more like disappointed, sad, crestfallen, something angsty like that.

"I don't understand.." she whimpered, narrowing her eyes at the man in front of her.

"Luce, it's the Dragon's Crown! It's my father's first – "

"Artifacts, yeah I know." She cut, stopping him by raising her palm. He looked at her wide eyed, but then again it was Lucy, the smartest, most intelligence girl he even known.

She took a deep breath. "So today was…" she paused, her voice was shaking, "It was just a cover…for this?"

Natsu's eyes widened, "What are you talking about?!"

She rose up, "I'm talking about the date! And the lake with oh all that special place! And all those sweet things you did! It was for THIS? All of them were just to distract me from THIS?"

"Look Lucy – "

"WHAT? What excuse do you have in mind EXACTLY?" she emphasized each word in anger, her wrath grew in each seconds passed, making the man in front of her cowered in fear.

"H-Hey, take it easy.." what the? At least he tried to come up with something. She looked at him with her daring brown eyes, earning a sigh from his lips.

"You won't buy it, won't you?"

She looked at him.

The man cursed slowly, "Look, it's almost midnight, I really need to get to the Hall right now."

"Excuse me? Are you just going to brush me off like that? REALLY? Oh wow, congratulation, you just got an award of being the most indecent man in the whole Earthland. You hear that? MOST INDECENT."

"…..I really don't have time for this Luce."

"You aren't leaving this area!"

"You know well enough that I can just pass you if I want, right?" she gasped at his underestimating tone. With a glare Lucy hopped in front of him. "Watch me!" she said before stretching her hands wide to her side, doing some kind of side cut step to the right and left. Damn, she was beautiful, but now she looked dumb.

He rolled her eyes, "Like it would stop me."

"At least I was trying here!"

He chuckled and stopped her, his desire to go to the Hall decreased little by little at the sight of the cute blonde.

"And now I got laughed at, my, you're gonna be the best boyfriend ever." She said sarcastically, a small smirk found its way to his lips, "You think so?"

"Oh shut up!" she managed to say between her red cheeks, "I'm still mad at you, you know."

"Oh, still mad? Kay, I'm off then," he said and spun around, she gasped in surprise before quickly grabbing his arms, stopping him from going anywhere.

"Wait! I told you not to go!"

"What would do me good if I stay here with the girl who's mad at me?"

"Natsu!" she yelled, he knew at any time someone would catch them red handed. But he didn't care, he laughed at the flushing girl and patted her head. It was so funny how a girl could change his mind and stopped him from getting his artifacts.

"You know," he started. She opened her eyes and looked at him, face red. "I wasn't lying about the date."

"It's hard to believe that." he chuckled at her. "No, I mean it… I mean, if it's with you," he tucked single hair behind her ear. "I will never play with feelings."

"Then why today? Why not days before, or after? Why today when you decided to get the artifact?"

He shrugged, "Let's just say I do need some distraction so you won't come with me. Don't wanna risk them catching you." She stared at him for a moment, feeling really really disturbed and confused. What was that suppose to mean? What's up with those sweet gestures and words? Did he feel the same or not?

She had no idea.

"You still want to go?" He didn't even know if it was a question or a statement because the blonde said it so bluntly, but he didn't answer for a few minutes, staring at her with his hard eyes.

A part of him wanted to stay, wanted to be here with her, to say that she was much more important than that freaky artifacts – whatever.

But most part of him knew, he knew that he should go.

Natsu's a Dragneel. And a Dragon Crown was their right belonging.

_**11:50**_

_**Time remained before midnight : 10 minutes.**_

He still had time.

"What if you get caught?"

"Lucy…"

"No!" she cut him, "I didn't not trusting you! I was just being realistic, what if you will? What will happen next?"

"I'll escape."

"The captured two Dragneels once. The guild, my mom, Wendy and I, we can't lose another!"

The rosette smiled at her, taking her hand in his. "You won't lose another, I'll make sure the Dragneels will be complete again." He assured her, gripping her hand tighter.

"I…I don't understand.." she backed away, freeing herself from his grip and covered her face with her palms. "I don't understand you.."

_**Tic toc.**_

"You don't have to." He said softly, biting his lower lip at her miserable state. Lucy knew she couldn't stop him, it was his decision. But she didn't want to lose him, she didn't want to risk anything.

She lost her mother, her mother's best friends, her father, her house, her wealth, her keys.

She couldn't lose him, too.

Though what mattered now was, she couldn't stop him from going. Natsu would slip away.

Natsu stared at her hanging head, face still covered by her palms. He waited for another thirty fifteen seconds, but she didn't say anything. She didn't do anything. And it was his call.

Taking a deep breath and turned around, "I'm sorry Luce – "

His eyes widened when she grabbed his hand with her hands, stopping him from go, her grip was tight, firm, and reassuring.

"I won't be able to stop you.." Lucy whispered, looking at him intensely. "But first you should know that I will never, ever, play with feelings too.. But this – "she stood on her tiptoes and cupped his face, kissing him quick catching him off guard at the sudden pressure on his lips.

She pulled away moments later, her fingers traced circles on his cheek. "Is my last convinction."

Holycrap. "It's up to you if you want to go there or not. I've tried to stop you. But promise me – " Lucy clenched her fist tight, her eyes watering and her heart ached at the bad possibilities swirled in her brain. "Promise me you'll come back, safe, alive, with the same silly grin and cheeky smirk of yours and if you ever, ever break that promise I'll do something stupid like following you – don't forget that we're stuck together, idiot! Not just because of Huckleberry but it's coz I…"

Natsu stopped her by encircling his arms around her, shutting her off.

"Safe that, Lucy."

Her eyes widened, "What?"

He pulled away and grinned at her. "It's past midnight. Invalid time to steal something for the Midnight Salamander." She blinked through tear-stained lashes. Did she really rambled that long? "So you.." she hiccupped, looking at him wide eyed filled with hope.

"I'm not going."

"..Really?" she whispered, leaning to his touch on her cheek, when he grinned that stupid grin of him, she laughed and jumped at him, hands flew around his neck. He chuckled along and wrapped his arms around her waist, spinning her around. "But really," he said after putting her down.

"You talked too much." She pouted at that but said nothing. "You cut my confession!" she complained, glaring at him with flushing face. He smirked, "Ooops?"

Lucy hit his arms playfully, "Jerk." Natsu laughed at her and rested their foreheads together. "Me too."

She blushed, "Chance closed." He closed his eyes, smiling. "But you love me, right?" her heart sped up at his words, blood pressure raised up to her cheeks, especially to her cheeks.

"Coz I do, towards you." Despite her pre-conscious state, she smiled, hugging him tighter than before. "So, do you?" he asked again.

"I do." She whispered. He grinned and pulled her away so he could look at her face. They gazed at each other with a smile, lovingly.

That, before the door of the house beside them opened.

"Are you kids okay? I hear some fight." An old lady looked at them in concern, Lucy smiled and Natsu wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. "We're fine, Ma'am."

"Really?" she asked, looking around for a sign of bad guys. Natsu nodded, burying his nose on the blonde's head. "Yup, we're perfectly fine."

"Okay then, you kids should go home, it's past midnight now." they saluted her and sighed as she get back inside. Lucy patted his hand and looked at his grinning face. "Let's go home, shall we?"

He didn't even glanced to the Hall's direction this time and nodded, linking their hands. "Come on, quickly! I'm sleepy!" he whined, Lucy laughed at him.

"No, let's just…take it slow." He looked down at the girl for a moment before smiling, kissing her temple. "Anything for you, weirdo."

She smiled, yawning.

Bringing Natsu Home : CHECK.

* * *

**I seriously need to stop these happy moments and gave some problem to this story -_- **

**or, just sit and think of another happy fluffy moments xD**

**No, seriously, more problems should be written, soon. So soon *determined face* **

**I'm so happy right now! Heard a very good news last night and all, involving something about my text with my bestie *cough* xD and as my inauguration is over, I can think of another chapter! ^^ just wish I can update faster. I hate being MIA :3**

**once again thanks for the reviews for the last chappie. And pwetty pwease leave a review for this one, too, minna :D It keeps me pumped up! **

**till next time~**

**-Nachii**


End file.
